Insanity Plea
by Juniper87
Summary: Sixteenth birthdays are supposed to be special. For Paige Willows, coming into her Dracken inheritance has turned her ordinary life upside down. Now her sanity is at stake and her only hope is to find a strong Dracken mate..or two..or ease Read Bio for Update Info!
1. Sixteenth Birthday

Insanity Plea

[INSERT WITTY DISCLAIMER]

**A/N**: So first off I want to make it clear that this story while based in the Harry Potter world will NOT be based at Hogwarts nor directly involve any of the cannon characters, they will be mentioned and make appearances...eventually.

**Secondly** this fan fiction is more a fan fiction of a fan fiction. The idea is based off of **Starlight Massacres** story **The Rise of the Dracken**. She mentions a character in New Zealand and with her permission I've taken that idea and run with it. The New Zealand Submissive is my character and this story, while containing some of Mass's OMC's, does not necessarily run cannon to hers. The concept of the Dracken belong to **Beautiful Kaos** who at some point **StarLight** **Mass** actually names but for the life of me I can't find the Chapter it in. I will try to stay as true to her wonderful creations as possible and the cannon according to StarLight Mass :D.

**Thirdly**, for the random off chance any of my viewers have actually read **Rise of the Dracken** I will tell you now I cannot write smut so this story will lack all of Starlight's smutty-goodness that her reviewers love so much and, while it will have a Dracken harem, there will be little to no Slash. Sorry to disappoint so early.

**Fourthly**, I am writing this purely for my own enjoyment, so read at your own risk. I make no promises. If you're confused by something let me know, chances are it'll be revealed as part of the story progression, if not then I'll make sure to fill you in.

-Sixteenth Birthday-

Paige Willows woke early on the morning of her sixteenth birthday. She felt hot, but her breath puffed in the cold air of New Zealand winter. It was her hand resting on the pillow in front of her face that gave the first indication something was wrong. The moonlight from the window caused the patches on her hand to glint. She rolled over onto her back and brought her arms up for examination. Scales the almost the exact white of her skin swirled around her hands, circling her wrists and spiraling up her arms. She scratched at her arm, but the scales blended into her skin leavening no catchable ridge. She felt her face and could trace the smooth patter of scales there too across her nose and eyelids as well as banding on her forehead. Her exploring fingers found that her canines were extended, and sharper, poking out of her upper lip to rest gently on the top of her bottom lip. She bit down on her lip, the sharp pain told her this was not a dream.

She sat up and quietly made her way to the bathroom that connected the room she shared with three other girls to another room of girls. She locked both doors before switching on the light. The bathroom appeared in stark colors. She blinked, trying to clear her eyesight only to realize that her eyes were seeing everything clearer. She could see the miniscule cracks in the stone floor beneath her feet, as well as each shade of gray that composed them. She stood in front of the mirror and gaped. The creature before her was not the one she was used to seeing in the morning. Gone was the crisscross of scars on her caller bone and the freckles across her cheeks. Her flaming red hair tumbled down and around her shoulders, well past her hips and brushed the back of her knees. Her night shirt was stretched across her much fuller breasts. She lifted the hem and pressed her hand against her flat, almost concaved stomach. Her shorts like her shirt now stretched across her new, rounder hips and pert bum.

Not that a great body wasn't what every 16 year old wanted for her birthday but Paige felt panic rising in her. The bathroom seemed unbearably hot, or was that her? She stared at her reflection. This couldn't be permanent. There was no way this could be permanent, she couldn't hide this from the other girls or Matron Summers.

She turned on the tap and splashed water onto her face.

"Go away." she willed, "Please go away. It's not real. It can't be real."

She felt something shift. She looked back into the mirror. Her slate gray eyes stared at the face she was used to sans freckles. Her hair was its normal shoulder-length rod-strait red. She stared at her hands, felt her teeth, everything was normal. She tugged on her night cloths that still fit too tight, well almost everything.

A light tap on the door and her best friend's voice drifted quietly through.

"Are you okay Paige?"

"Yes, thank you Hannah." Paige unlocked and opened the door, "Right as rain." she grinned down at the twelve year old.

Hannah grinned back, "Good. You were pretty restless in your sleep. I was worried."

Paige tugged on one of Hannah's brown corkscrew curls, "Nope, just dandy."

Hannah smiled then turned to go back to bed. Paige switched off the light and did the same. Still too warm she lie on top of her blankets, her back to the rest of the room and stared out the window. Worry made sleep impossible. Was it just her imagination? Was she crazy? People didn't grow scales, or wake up with a perfect body. Were her parents not human?

She mentally snorted at that. Maybe it was a dream; she could have bitten her lip in her sleep. She closed her eyes. _That had to be it, it was just a dream_.

oVVVVVVVo

Paige woke later to Hannah bouncing on her bed.

"Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!" she giggled.

Groans from the other occupants of their room said it was still too early to be up. She glanced at the watch on her wrist. It was 6:30am.

She opened one eye to glare balefully at Hannah. Hannah's warm brown eyes simply smiled back at her as she held out a gift wrapped in the Sunday comics section.

Paige sighed then sat up. She gave a jaw popping yawn while cat-stretching. She then took the gift shoved at her with a chuckle.

"Okay okay. I'll open it."

Hannah's gift was a home-made cardboard picture frame with a picture of the two of them from Hannah's birthday two months ago. The frame was decorated with a long snake like dragon and copious amounts of glitter.

"It's brilliant Hannah. I love it!"

Hannah bounced off the bed and picked up a shoe box from the floor.

"This was on your bed. It's got your name on it but I don't know who sent it."

Curious, Paige took the box from her friend. Before she could open it the door to their room burst open and Madam Summers stumbled in.

Madam Summers was a rosy cheeked, gray hair grandmotherly looking women. Paige often compared her to Mrs. Clause, but looks were as far as the softness in Madam Summers went. She was sharper than a knife and had very little patience for her charges, and was always drunk.

"Up up, out of bed you lazy lot."

Emma and Chloe groaned and stumbled out of their beds.

Madam Summers eyed Paige, "What are you still doing here?"

Paige felt a growl rumble in her chest as Summers tone.

"I'm waiting on the papers. Do you have them?"

"They're in my office. You can come collect them when you leave. You are leaving today. Another girl needs that bed."

"I'm leaving as soon as I get dressed."

"No!" Hannah wailed, "Can't you at least stay for breakfast?"

Paige shook her head but Summers replied for her.

"She's not getting another meal outta me. She's an heiress now, she can take care of her own self."

With finality Summers snapped the door shut. Hannah sniffled, "But-"

"No buts. You knew this was going to happen. I should get out of here soon so I don't get stuck in traffic on Highway 3."

Hannah burst into tears and ran from the room. Paige sighed and dug her suitcase out from under her bed. Hannah had been doing that for weeks now every time Paige's emanate departure was mention. Hannah thrived on theatrics.

Paige pulled out her cloths. She didn't actually have a lot to take. Her clothes had been delivered to her new home yesterday and all the important bits of furniture had come with the place. She put her dirty things in the outside zipper of her suitcase and changed into the jeans and jumper. She pulled her hair back into a messy bun. She sat on her bed to wait her turn in the loo and drew the shoe box into her lap. Hannah was right there was no indication of who sent it. She lifted the lid and set it aside. Inside a smaller black box rested on top of a stack of envelops and a small pocket sized leather book. She opened the second box first. Inside was a woven island necklace and bracelet, set with polished shells and stones she couldn't identify.

A funny smell drifted from them and she sneezed. She admired the multitude of colors the sun reflected off the stones, and then slipped them both on. She liked them and she didn't own any jewelry. Emma came out of the wash room then so Paige quickly put the box and picture frame in her suitcase then raced in before Chloe came back to use it. She washed her face and brushed her teeth quickly. She hadn't been lying to Hannah, she needed to beat rush hour if she was going to make it to work on time. She stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her dream from last night floated to mind. It had seemed so real. She tried to concentrate on the feeling she had in the dream, willing the shift to happen. She opened her eyes; her normal, unblemished face stared back at her. It was weird that her freckles seemed to disappear over night as well as her hips and chest to change, but she decided it had probably been more gradual and she was just now noticing it.

That done she did a quick scan of the room for anything she might have missed then grabbed her purse and suite case. The girl's home for orphans had been her home on and off for as long as she could remember. It was a large ranch style house situated on a farm outside Hawera on the North island of New Zealand. Her parents had left her on the door step with her name written on a note and until last week that was the only thing she knew about her family.

Last week a barrister had approached her at her job at the electronics store in town. She discovered that someone had left her a trust fund and a house. Any questions about who led to dead ends. It was very mysterious and at the same times a stroke of pure luck. Her emancipation had continued to be denied because of her 'lack of alternate residence' never mind that she needed to have emancipation papers to get an alternate residence. But with a source of monthly income and a house in her name the courts had quickly given her the emancipation in effect on her sixteenth birthday. Anything for one less orphan the state had to fork over money for.

She had a seven hour drive across the island to get there and still had to settle and unpack in her new home. She loaded her stuff into her car then went to find Madam Summers. It was 7:30, all the girls would be out doing farm chores. She found Summers in her office playing solitar on her computer.

"I've come for my papers." Paige announced.

Summers pointed to a thick manila envelope on the corner of her desk. Paige picked it up and pulled out the contents, double checking to make sure everything necessary was there. Her birth certificate, her emancipation papers, her vaccination records and even her school transcript where in there.

"Where's Hannah?" Paige asked.

Summers shrugged, not looking up from her game, "Doing her chores if she knows what's good for her."

Paige rolled her eyes, she had a pretty good idea where Hannah might be, and her chores weren't it. She left the office and headed out the back door. She rounded red barn and found Hanna at the top of the hay stacks.

"So...do I get a goodbye or anything?" she called up.

Hannah shook her head, "How can you just leave?"

"I'm not 'just leaving' I'm only a phone call away."

"But you're on the other side of the island!"

"Hannah...please." Paige called, "One day you'll be old enough to leave too. You only have the rest of the winter break to endure, and then you have the school year at that fancy school of yours. Besides that, you know you have a place with me when you turn sixteen."

"But that's four years away!"

Paige stood silently looking at the mop of brown hair that was all she could see of her friend.

"I'm leaving now." she said finally, "I'll miss you. I'll call you when I get there. Keep your cell phone on you and away from Mrs. Summers okay?"

Hannah's head bobbed and her quiet sobs reached Paige. Paige left without another word. Goodbye's sucked and both of them had had too many in their life time.

****

**A/N:** Reviews are welcome; Flames will be introduced to my fire salamander that will gladly eat them. :) Ta!

Juniper87


	2. Home and Family History

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and the Dracken belong to Starlight Massacre and Beautiful Kaos.

**Psyco101: **Thanks for being my first reviewer! :D I'm glad you think it's brilliant :)

**7darkangel7:** Thanks for being the first viewer to put my story on alert :D

* * *

><p><strong>-Home and Family History-<strong>

Eight hours, two gas stops, a lunch break and two wrong turns later Paige turned onto the street Tarakona. Her house was at the end of the forest lined road. Residential roads branched off the main road, the homes of others tucked away out of sight. The paved road gave way to a hard packed dirt road and her home came into view. It was a white red roofed villa and looked daunting in the twilight.

Excitement mixed with trepidation made her nerves jittery as she made her way to the large mission arched door way. Inside she felt dwarfed. The large hallway was wide with a high ceiling. She left her stuff by the door and explored her new home. Her lawyer said the house had been built fifty eight years ago and had been fully updated last year, but that the layout was still the same. Her initial thoughts were who ever built the place had to have been seven feet tall, all the door ways were at least that tall. The counters came up above her waist and there was no way she could reach the second shelf of the cabinets. The dining area was large enough to fit an eight person table but only had a small square table and two chairs. The furniture in the family room was at least twenty years old but in great condition, there was an old entertainment center but no electronics.

Paige moved through the double wide arch that led from the living room back to the foyer/hallway and ventured down the hall. She trailed her fingers over the wood panels tracing the weave of the wood. She could see the lighter colors on the wood where pictures once hung. She stopped at a recessed part of the wall. A small alcove, big enough for a portrait frame lie empty.

Her fingers tingled when she touched the empty space and for a moment she could see a portrait painting of her family. She saw herself surrounded by three huge men who would have fit comfortably in this house and a small woman with her fiery red hair that flowed and curled around her shoulders. She could see herself, six months old and held in her mother's embrace with two older brothers clutching her tiny hands in theirs.

She curled her fingers into a fist and took a step back from the empty wall. She blinked away tears, she'd never seen her family that clear before, and she had tried. Always she could describe the other orphans parents, even what they were doing that very day, the images came to her if she thought hard enough. The adults had always thought it a game of make believe, but she was never sure that it was only her imagination.

She shook her head, no use crying over something she couldn't change. She continued her self-guided tour. She found the master bedroom. It was massive, easily the biggest room in the whole house. The wood and design was more modern. Her lawyer mentioned that part of the house had burned down fifteen years ago and had to be rebuilt. The furniture in this room was new. A rot-iron bed dominated the space; extra long and wide. It looked very inviting.

Realizing how incredibly exhausted she was she decided the rest of the tour would have to wait until tomorrow. She back- tracked to the foyer and grabbed her suitcase. She pulled her sleep clothes from it then put the suitcase in the closet to be gone through later. Her boxes of stuff had been placed in one of the other rooms, she'd find it tomorrow.

The bed was taller than she expected and she had to take a little jump to actually get on it. She lie a moment flat on her back as she sank into the mattress. It felt like heaven. She crawled to the middle of the bed and under the soft cream linins and duvet and with a happy sigh rolled onto her side. She clutched a pillow to her chest and grinned.

It was hers; she finally had a place to call home, a place that belonged to only her! She gave an excited squeal into the pillow, then laughed at her silliness and settled down to sleep.

oVVVVo

The next morning after a breakfast of lightly cooked sausage and fried eggs she set about unpacking her things and making a list of things she needed to get to make this place more hers. Most of it could be bought with the first deposit she had received from her trust, added with the money she had in her account from her last job in Inglewood she would be able to make the home hers. Her trust was enough that she could comfortably live on the interest alone if she didn't go overboard on her spending. Having done without what she couldn't afford on minimum wage, she did not think she would have problems, but she'd keep an eye out for a job anyways. Mostly she planned to get the house together and prepare for entry exams for Uni.

Done with the inside of the house she fished out a pair of hiking boots from her closet and a sweater. The day was overcast and the weather man had hinted at the possibility of freezing rain in this area. It was an uncommonly cold winter for the normally subtropical area. It had not risen above ten degrees Celsius in over a week. She put on a pair of fingerless gloves, a knitted hat and matching scarf Hannah had made for her last birthday. She hated the cold and always seemed to get colder faster than everyone else.

She stood on her back porch and surveyed her land. She had about half an acre of cleared area before the tree line. She found the bush walk and followed the path through the trees.

The forest seemed oddly muted, darker and drier because of the rain heavy skies. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes; she loved the smell of the trees. She could just make out the distant call of a bill-bird and smiled. She continued down the path. The temperature began dropping and the wind picked up as she neared the river that wrapped around the north eastern border of her property. In the summer time it would make a great place to swim. The path followed the bank of the river before turning back up into the trees. Two stone dragons, covered in forest growth crouched low to the ground on either side of the path. She had the faintest sensation that they were watching her. She laughed at herself and followed the path to where it ended completely at a large wooden work shed with short porch. The door sagged on its hinges and nearly came free when she opened it.

According to the file on the property, this building hadn't had any renovation and had been added twenty six years ago. Wooden crates were stacked against the far wall. The window panes were broken and had allowed the elements access to the room, warping the wood and leaving dirt and leaves scattered everywhere.

She stood there not quite in the door. She was curious about the crates; perhaps they had clues about the previous occupants of the house; maybe information on whoever had left her the house and trust fund. But something stronger than her curiosity screamed danger. Something evil had happened in this room, like so many other times in her life she wasn't sure how she knew that, only that she did.

She stepped back closing the door. Maybe she could hire someone to move the crates up to the shed near the house. Something cracked under her foot as she moved to leave. Glancing down she noticed glass scattered on the short porch. Glancing up, she saw the decaying remains of some kind of charm or wind chime.

She reached up, her fingers just barely touching the shell fragment dangling from overhang. Heat shot through her. For a moment she felt like she was burning alive. An odd shot of pleasure raced through her as well, causing something low in her stomach to tighten and a moan to escape her lips.

With a gasp she pulled her hand back down and stumbled away on jellied legs. She did not understand that feeling. She stood rubbing her hand and staring at the innocent shell. She had never felt anything like it, so much heat and _something_; she did not even know what to call that feeling.

She turned and hurried away from the building finding the trail again and racing up it and back home. She did not know what had happened there, but she was never going back there again.

oVVVVo

At home she shed her outside clothing and decided to make herself some hot cocoa. She was leaning against the counter waiting for the water to boil gazing about her and memorizing the room when she noticed a door next to the pantry that she had not seen before. She turned down the heat on the stove and ventured to it. The door knob was an old brass one intricately carved like a dragon's head. She frowned, that was something she had noticed as a recurring theme, every now and then a dragon would crop up where she least expected it, the bathroom shower head, a broken baby mobile in the back of her closet and the stone statue by the river.

She turned the knob, at first it felt as though it would resist, then with a loud _snick_ the door opened. A narrow stairwell led down into the ground. She frowned, where basements allowed in building codes? Nothing in her file had said anything about a basement. She looked around for a light switch but didn't see one. She turned back to the kitchen and rummaged through the drawers, she had seen a torch in there somewhere. Finding it, and that it work, she turned back and headed down the stairs.

It smelt like burnt wood, and a fine layer of ash coated everything in an oily gray stain. Thunder rumbled outside and above her head kicking her heart beat up.

"Smart" she muttered to herself as she peered around the cellar, "The person who goes and checks the cellar never shows up again." The torch flickered, she glowered at it, "Don't you dare."

She moved carefully away from the stairs, the ash making the stone floor slippery. Drapes covered the walls, singed and gray with ash. She reached for the closest one and gently shifted in to the side. The beam of her torch displayed an array of colors, and the gold of a picture frame. Slowly as to not smear ash she removed the drape.

She squeaked, taking a frightened step back as she found herself face to face with a portrait of herself in Victorian garb. She pressed a soot covered hand to her heart and stared at the picture that stared right back at her. Slowly she began to notice differences. First the women's eyes were a brilliant blue, winged by thick red lashes. The rather flirtatious smile on her lips was something Paige knew she could never pull off. Her eyes were intelligent, something Paige knew herself to be as well, and the painting was missing the prominent dimples that her own smile produced. She pointed the beam to the plate at the bottom.

"Winry Webster"

Curiosity piqued and fears gone Paige reached for the next one. This produced yet another painting of a woman who bore a striking resemblance to herself.

"Bethae Burnhouse" lacked the mane of red hair, but rather had a dark brown color; she had a stern face softened with Paige's dimples and smiling blue eyes. On it went down generations of women, each frame getting smaller and smaller until it ended with a small 4x4 painting of a woman with intelligent blue eyes, raven tresses and no name.

There was no denying it, this was her family, at least the matriarchal line of it. She wiped a tear from her cheek as she stepped back to view it all in the light of her torch. She then turned to the next wall, a massive painting; one that would fit into the alcove she had discovered last night rested alone on the wall, uncovering it she saw _the_ painting. Her mother, her brothers, and three men of bulk all surrounding her and her mother. She shined the beam around the frame and was disappointed to find no name plate, and a careful search showed no artist either.

Over head the storm broke with a thunderous crash and for just a moment she could have sworn the three men in picture looked up directly at her, but then the moment was gone and they were staring lovingly at the baby. Spooked she carefully covered all the paintings, making a mental note to clean out the basement as soon as possible. The tea kettle began to shriek.

She hurried back up stairs, slipping out of her shoes at the stop to prevent tracking ash oil everywhere then hurried to remove the kettle from the heat. She turned off the burner then hurried to the bathroom. She was covered in ash. A quick shower then she decided she would go to the market in town and see what they offered and decide if she needed to make a trip to Gisborn tomorrow.

oVVVVo

Morere was a very small town but she found the locals to be very friendly. It was a tourist destination during the winter and summer months, the Morere Hot Springs being a local and internationally desirable experience. Paige had smiled and made a mental note to put in a seasonal application for the Hot Springs. As she pushed her cart through the Shoplit Market she found herself watching the children running around with their parents. Something inside her twinged slightly with the desire to have children of her own. She twisted the bracelet on her wrist and laughed at herself, children at sixteen?

She moved on passed the mother and daughter in the cereal section and moved to the meat. She had not been much of meat eater but all day she had been craving it so she piled an assortment in her cart and continued shopping. Unless she was looking for antiques her best bet for furniture and clothing would be a trip north to Gisborn, there were a few tourist boutiques on Main Street but it wasn't the kind of clothing she was looking for.

She paid and took her groceries home cooking herself a very rare steak and steamed carrots, yet finding herself not quite satisfied with the cooked meat. She'd have to learn to cook better.

The rest of the winter months were spent setting up the house with her personal touches and cleaning out the basement. All the portraits were brought out of the base meant and placed in the larger of the other two bedrooms that she had converted into a small library. The third room she made into a guest bedroom, with the idea that one day Hanna might be able to visit. The portrait of her family was placed back in the alcove in the hall.

Being on her own, she decided, brought out strange habits. Her meat preference had changed to nearly raw meat with a balance of grains and fruits. She had tried cooking it in varying ways but nothing tasted as good as it being pink. The desire for a family hung at the back of her mind, snapping to the forefront when she least expected it, sometimes leaving her breathless from the intensity. She blamed it on the large empty house and decided she needed to spend more time with other people and less time shifting through boxes filled with books to- burnt-to-decipher and jarred contents she couldn't even begin to describe. What did her family use "eye of newt" for anyway? She found four sticks of varying size and different woods in one box of wizard robes and hats. The wands were singed but otherwise fine. She wondered if her family had been fantasy fans, perhaps they liked Renaissance festivals? She set the wands and robes back into the box and put it aside.

Any genealogy search only ended in frustrated tears. When asked about the house at the end of Tarakona the people in town gave her a blank stare.

So as the weather began to warm up again in October she sent in an application to the local business, and ventured out to Gisborn as well. Her background at Charlie's electronics earned her a spot on staff at the Hot Springs.

Work at the Hot Springs provided enough of a distraction and routine that Paige was able to ignore many of the strange feelings and habits she had developed. She was the youngest on the staff and many of the other employees treated her like a kid sister, alternating being overly protective and downright irritating. From the way they acted all the male visitors planned on abducting her and having their way with her the moment she was alone. The senior staff members insisted that there was a greater influx of single males at the hot spring than any previous year.

"They all know you're here and want to steal you away from us." Ash, a second year in Uni, told her with a mock leer and a wink.

She smiled as she stacked plates at a table in the cafe. It was actually nice. She had always been the protector at the orphanage, taking the brunt of the punishment for the little ones and doing the hardest work, even covering for the sick ones so Madam Summers wouldn't know they were not doing all their chores. She had tutored them in their school work. Except Hannah who was gone for the school year. Many of the older kids had nicknamed her "Mamma-Paige" but she had just shrugged it off and would never have admitted how much she looked forward to being a mother.

Seeing all the children running around with parents gave her a glimpse of what she wanted her family to be like. She had seen honeymooners so wrapped up in each other that nothing else seemed to exist. She found her emotions alternating between insane jealousy and painful longing. The emotions sometime became so consuming that she'd lie in bed at night crying out, and sometimes, on still nights she could imagine she heard a response.

As the tourist season began to abate Paige became aware of a medley of smells she could not place a name to. She would find herself following the scents only to have it completely vanish. It was frustrating and maddening. Some part of her new the smells were important, that finding what or who they belonged to was important for her happiness, if not her sanity. The other part of her scoffed at the thought, scents do not _call_ to you. But she did nt really believe that part of her.

It was her last day of full time work at the hot springs until winter time, when things began to make more sense. She was fixing an issue with the DOS program they used for registration. Ash stood next to her checking people in and out. Out of habit she began fiddling with her bracelet, waiting for the code changes to load.

"I have never seen you without that bracelet." Ash commented.

She looked over at him a little startled. He was the second person to mention her jewelry today, the other had been a tall blonde American she had bumped into while restocking the towels. Ash was frowning at her bracelet as if it were a puzzle. She spun it around, "It was a gift actually, for my sixteenth birthday. Actually...it was part of a gift."

"What was the rest?"

Paige shrugged, "I'm not sure. A book I think."

"Why wear the bracelet though? It's...interesting, but not really the type of jewelry I figured you would like."

Paige smiled, "It's actually the only I own. Well and the necklace." she pulled the necklace out of her shirt to show him.

His eyes widened even more, something...feral flashed in his light green eyes. He made a growling noise low in his stomach. He reached out and pulled her close shoving his nose close to the skin of her neck, taking a deep breath.

"Ash!" she cried in surprise and shoved against his chest.

He backed away, "All this time you've been right under our nose. Merlin's beard, Paige are you crazy? Why would you do this?"

Paige backed away, Ash seemed to grow in front of her eyes, he seemed bigger, more aggressive, more...dangerous. She was not even sure if she was looking at the same person. Quiet Ash who was studying law to be a detective was gone; in his place was something dangerous, something feral. He growled and snarled at her alternating looking like he wanted to strangle her and wanted leave.

But worst of all, something inside of her _responded_. A soft mewling came from her lips as she pressed her back against the wall. His eyes sharpened on her as if realizing what he was doing. He took two steps back.

"Don't you dare move." he growled the command, "I'm going to be right back." He looked at her necklace and bracelet and snarled before running into the back room.

For a moment she stood there staring at the spot he once occupied, feeling almost compelled to stay. But then her senses returned and she was out from behind the counter and running. She stopped in at the employee lounge to get her bag and tell Ami she was leaving earlier.

"Something's come up. I have to leave, now."

"Okay." Ami said, "I'll cover the rest of your shift. Did you get that bug fixed?"

"Yeah. I'll be back in on Tuesday." she said and was out the door. She took the long way around the reception area, nearly running into many of the reserves guests. Dodging kids and adults she made it to the employee parking lot.

She shivered violently as she dug through her purse for her keys. A light misty rain had clung to the area all day, and in her haste she had forgotten her coat. She found her keys but a steely arm encircled her waist pulling her away from her car. Before she could scream a hand clamped down over her mouth.

In the reflection on her car window she recognized the American from earlier. He smelled like hay and sweat underneath too much Polo cologne. Like before she felt the urge to gag as his tobacco laced breath reached her nose.

"Looky looky. If it aint the little pounda flesh from earlier. Guess what I found out aboutcha darlin'."

Paige struggled against his hold; his thumb was pressed over her nose making it difficult to breath.

"I just got me a little Submissive." he whispered huskily in her ear.

Tears sprang to her eyes and fear threatened to chock her as spots began to dance her eyes. In desperation she dug her nails into his hand and managed to get his hand in her mouth long enough to bite down hard enough to get a mouth full of blood.

"Merlin Dammit, Jason! Hurry up the little bitch is stronger than she looks!"

Jason came around the other side of her car, holding a wicked looking dagger in one hand. His black eyes stared at her as if he weren't seeing her but something else. An animal had raked his face with massive claws the scars traveled down his face and under the collar his shirt.

"Keep it still Hunter, I don't wanna kill it yet." Jason said stalking towards her.

"Why the hell not? Just shove it in and get it over-OUCH!"

She let out a terrified scream, the sound resonating around them without Hunters hand blocking her mouth. She let out a furious roar and managed to rake her fingers down the side of Hunters face.

"Keep her quiet, "Jason yelled looking around in a panic, " she's gunna call all the Dominates down on us!"

Hunter grabbed a fist full of her hair yanking her head back at a painful angel. She let out another scream that was part wail and part roar. This time she _felt_ a resounding answer all around and through her bones.

"Did you hear that?" Hunter's voice was furious, "Stick her Jason, NOW!"

Jason slashed out with the dagger and with her struggled caught her on the thigh and again across her ribs. Paige screamed in pain, it burned! Her blood flowed like acid from the wounds, white spots of pain blurring her vision. She clawed and thrashed against Hunters arms finally managing to summon the strength to get away. She only managed two running steps before collapsing in agony on the ground. Her heart thumbed in her ears as keening, panting wails came from her mouth. Hunters boot caught her in the ribs flipping her over onto her back. She stared into his icy soulless blue eyes as her vision darkened around her. She felt on fire, her blood felt like it boiled under her skin.

Hunter squatted down, brushing her hair out of her face with a predatory grin, "Sleep now little Draken. You're gunna make me rich."

She sobbed as her eyes closed and she slipped into unconsciousness.

...

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: So just to change what I said before: I want to make it clear that this story while based in the Harry Potter world will NOT be based at Hogwarts but will now involve some cannon characters, just not the Golden Trio in any great degree, at least not at this point.

This fan fiction is more a fan fiction of a fan fiction. The idea is based off of **Starlight Massacres** story **The Rise of the Dracken**. She mentions a character in New Zealand and with her permission I've taken that idea and run with it. The New Zealand Submissive is my character and this story, while containing some of Mass's OMC's, does not necessarily run cannon to hers. The concept of the Dracken belong to **Beautiful Kaos** who at some point **StarLight** **Massacre** actually names but for the life of me I can't find the Chapter it in. I will try to stay as true to her wonderful creations as possible and the cannon according to **StarLight** **Massacre **:D.

For the random off chance any of my viewers have actually read **Rise of the Dracken** I will tell you now I cannot write smut so this story will lack all of Starlight's smutty-goodness that her reviewers love so much and, while it will have a Dracken harem, there will be little to no Slash. Sorry to disappoint so early.

Yes...yes I did copy and paste that from the first chapter :)

Ta!

Juniper87


	3. Here There Be Dracken

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter world and anything related to it doesn't belong to me. The Dracken's do not belong to me see previous chapters A/N.**

**Here There Be Dracken's**

As soon as he was out of sight Ash apparated to the New Zealand Ministry of Magic where he knew at least one of the Draken Council Elders would be. Three months ago the possibility of a new Draken had been reported by one of the students at Ruakawhena School of Magic. An Elder had been sent and had found traces of a Submissive Draken but the trail was cold and could not be followed.

Hannah had disappeared from the school before any more questions could be answered. In the excitement of getting her suggestions confirmed things like a name and location of her friend had not been found. Four girls had left the orphanage in the last month. Elder Shkadov had selected a contingent of Dominate Dracken's to hunt down and bring the Submissive to the Conclave to be educated on her inheritance and to pick her Dominate.

Ash had known on arrival at the Hot Springs that the Draken was there, but every time he thought he had her, the scent was lost. He couldn't risk being too obvious because there were Hoarders in the area and they couldn't risk tipping them off to their presence.

Every now at then he'd catch the scent of the submissive's call for a dominate and it drove him absolutely crazy not able to answer it. It wasn't until Paige had drawn his attention to her bracelet that he realized what had been missing for the last four months. She was under a suppression charm, coupled with a confundus that ordinarily wouldn't have affected a Draken but had been concocted as a scent rather than a spell and so got past their skin.

The charms had been outlawed twenty years ago by the council, the effects it had to the Draken psyche over prolonged periods of use was worse than the potion. The last Draken to wear it had had a complete split in personality between the human and the Draken and had been driven insane. Paige had been wearing it since her sixteenth birthday. He didn't even want to imagine the damage done to her Draken.

It took too long to get a hold of the Elder Shkadov, so he put out the call for his Unit to meet him in Morere. He contacted the Oceanic Unit and those in charge of finding her met him back at the reserve. Before he could lead them inside her Distress wail rent the air. All the Dominates roared in response, and heedless of the dangers of being seen by Muggles, launched into the air. Ash himself maintained control long enough to throw up some wards around the area to keep the Muggles at bay before racing after his Unit.

They landed in the middle of an ambush. Wizards with poison coated daggers and flinging lethal spells stood between them and Paige's crumpled form. The scent of her blood permeated the air, enraging all the dominates. They launched themselves at the wizards, ripping and tearing, dodging their spells and attacks. Then the crack of apparitions rent the air and they were left standing with dead wizards and injured Drakens, and their Submissive gone.

"Find me one Alive!." Ash growled and they began searching through the strewn bodies. They had only hours to find Paige before she was killed, that was if she was lucky and not left alive while the hoarders went through any current stock.

oVVVo

She was mindless with pain. She was so weak she couldn't move. She lay against something warm but every breath caused suffocating pain to rocket through her body. She wished for uncousness but the blissful oblivion refused to overtake her. She didn't know how long she lie there whimpering and shaking, but eventually she became aware of the soft tongue cleaning the tears from her face and the soothing murmurs and warm hands wondering her body.

Something pressed against her lips and she opened them obediently, warm blood filled her mouth, metallic and sweet at the same time. The pain began to recede as she greedily drank more. She forced her eyes open the effort it took felt superhuman. She became aware of several things at once. She was in a cell, something she thought she would see in a castle dungeon, with a straw pallet and a thin itchy looking blanket. Every inch of her hurt as if she'd been run over by a semi-repeatedly and she felt incredibly sticky. The most pressing issue wasn't her stickiness, nor that she had no memory on how she had come to be in the cell. No what really bothered her was that her head was resting on a very comfortable shoulder and she was pressed against a very firm chest...and they were both naked.

She had intended to jerk away, reach for the itchy blanket to cover herself, but the only thing she managed was a whimper. Her arms felt leaden folded in her lap. It took a lot of effort but she managed to lift her head from its current pillow.

The sensation of not remembering something was new to her. She had an excellent memory, she could remember every book she ever read, every test she ever took and every name of every person she'd met since she was six. She remembered clearly going into work, she could probably repeat the conversations she had up till her boss asking her to check up on a reported bug on their website. She could not remember anything that would lead her to her current position. She frowned, her head pounding the harder she tried to remember.

Then she remembered she was sitting naked in a man's lap and the only thing that stopped her from tumbling to the floor in a clumsy attempt to get away was his arms. She whimpered and tried to pull away from him.

"Shhh." his Spanish accented voice washed over her, calming her even though she knew it shouldn't, "You are safe from me princessa."

She looked up into his face. Blood was dried on the corner of his lip and around his nose. The Roman nose looked slightly crooked as if it were broken. His hair was dark brown or black, the lighting in the room made it difficult to tell, but it hung limply, or stuck up in spots all over his head. His eyes were dark brown, but held warmth in them as he looked her. Thick black lashes framed his eyes. His lips were wide the top a little plumper than the bottom. She consciously kept her eyes from roaming any further down. She didn't need them to tell her that he was built like a Greek statue.

"How do you feel?" he ask gently. His voice sounded exhausted, he was pale under the Spanish brown of his skin.

"Who are you?" she asked instead.

"Sylvester Osorio, twenty-eight. Mis amigos call me Sly." he grinned as if it were a private joke.

"Paige Willows, sixteen." she murmured, looking down and arranging her hair so it draped over her, shielding most of her nudity.

He chuckled, but she didn't get the joke. She attempted to stand again, but only managed to ignite pain in her legs and side. She fell forward again and Sly easily caught her, tucking her back in the crook his neck. She inhaled deeply. Beneath the mingled scent of blood and waste she could smell wood smoke and coffee and something spicy and so divine that she pressed her nose into his skin. She wanted that scent wrapped around her, to hide behind it and let the pain and fear she felt go away.

She felt the groan rumble through Sly and his arms constricted around her.

"Do not, Princessa." his words were a warning but there was no heat behind it, "Neither of us is strong enough to finish what you start."

She mewed in distress, his rejection slicing into her as painful as the cuts that littered her body.

"Ah, no no, none of that." he rocked her gently, drawing her closer, "Shh. We must have safety for what you propose little Dracken. You will give the hoarders what they want and that is your chicks."

He shifted, and then hissed in pain. The sweet tang of fresh blood surrounded them. Rather than being disgusted she was ravenous for it. His hand appeared in front of her slick with his blood and she found herself lapping at it. Licking and sucking his fingers and palms until his hand was clean. With each drop she felt strength return to her limbs.

The blood gone from his hand she began looking for the source. Blood sluggishly oozed out of a slice just below his ribs, nearly the same spot she had been stabbed in. She sniffed it; below the iron smell was something sour. Tentatively she licked the wound, the mingled blood tingled unpleasantly against her tongue and she spat it out.

"What is that?"

"Poison, it keeps us weak between bleedings and prevents the wounds from healing properly." his voice was strained.

She glanced up at him from under her lashes. His eyes were closed and his face was stiff in something not quite pain, not quite pleasure. She looked back at the wound and sealed her mouth over it and drew the blood and poison into her mouth and spit it out, she repeated the process three times before she got a mouthful of just blood which she swallowed. Her mouth felt like she had eaten something spicy and she coughed a couple times to try to dispel the feeling.

"Why don't I have any poison in me?" she asked as she began searching him for more contaminated wounds.

"You did, I cleaned them before you woke."

She found another cut in his thigh and repeated the process. He made a noise and she glanced up at him again.

"Sorry." she murmured drawing a clean bit of blood and searching again.

He chuckled and said something in Spanish.

Satisfied he had no more wounds she sat back away from him, her hair draped around her like a cloak, and took a look at him. Thin white scars sliced up his wonderfully sculpted body. His light brown skin was offset by glorious emerald and onyx scales, which danced in the flickering torch light that, came through their cell door. He had one green wing with onyx scales that stretched out form his back, the bone across the top bent at an odd angle; the other was tucked behind his back. Straight across his wing span must have been close to twenty two feet.

The broken wing looked painful though, there were a few tears in the leathery part. But none of the scales had been removed. There was a power under the weakness, a determination in the stiffness of his posture, and the set of his jaw, tinged just slightly with desperation. Something inside her recognized that and resonated with it.

His dark chocolate eyes had watched her take him in, a soft smile tipped the corners of his wide mouth. Unbidden images danced before her eyes. The goodbye between him and his grandmother before his mission to Russia, the ambush, the betrayal of one of his friends, the bright battle of spell magic and then the sharp stabbing pain in his thigh quickly followed by a slice in his ribs, all flashed by in a confusion of brief color and emotions. The fight continued with more feral battle tactics as his instincts won over his training, until the knife sliced through one wing, the pain bringing him to his knee, the slice of steal across his back and the white hot pain as the bone in his wing snapped and finally oblivion.

She gasped ripping her gaze away from his.

"You are lucky I am so weak from blood loss. My Dracken roars for me to claim you s your eyes have so clearly claimed me."

She looked at him sharply; he couldn't possibly know what she had just seen, then she realized he was referring to her perusal of his body, not the instant it had taken for her to see those bits of his past. She flushed in embarrassment when the words had sunk in.

"Dracken." she muttered, "I keep hearing that word."

Except she couldn't remember where she had heard it, only that it was familiar.

"Is that what you are?" she asked, looking at his scales and wings again.

"Si, and you Princessa."

"What? No, I'm just-" but she didn't finish the sentence because suddenly everything fell into place and made sense. That dream was not a dream; she _had_ changed on her sixteenth birthday. She finally noticed what her brain had refused to show her, that her arms swirled with pale white scales and her nails were longer, more claw like. Her hair too was not usually long enough to cover her like a cloak. She took a fist full of it in her hands and tugged experimentally. The sharp pain it caused convinced her it was really hers. She rolled her shoulders slightly.

"I don't have wings." she muttered lamely, everything else pointed to her sudden creature status, except that lack of wings.

"You do. You need to call them. He shifted slightly and winced as it jarred his wing, "I cannot undo mine with it broken it will cause more damage."

She flexed her shoulders again but nothing happened. The physical form wasn't the only thing. Her 'gift' had gone haywire after her sixteenth birthday, visions coming unbidden with just a glance at random strangers when it had once taken a conscious effort and some kind of personal connection to see anyone's past or present. She had also been eating way more meat than was healthy for a normal human, meat that only tasted good rare enough to bleed but was still not satisfying.

She buried her face in her hands, "I do not believe it. How could this happen?"

"Someone in your family must have been Dracken, yes?"

Paige gave a laugh that was half sob, "I'm an orphan. I haven't a clue."

Sly made a noise she could not quite identify. She dropped her hands and looked at him.

"Why are we here Sly?" she asked, "Why do they bleed us?"

"We are magical creatures, in most of the world we are classed as "Dark" and so hunted by government and traders we call Hoarders. Our bodies are harvested for the magical properties and used in potions and spells."

"Potions and spells. Like Witches and Wizards?"

Sly looked at her, his brow pinched and his tone angry, "How can you not know of the magical world? You are sixteen, you have the power is strange but strong, no ministry could miss it."

"Until my sixteenth birthday I was mostly normal...I have a gift that's always made me different, but I can't remember ever doing a single spell, no "ministry" has ever contacted me."

Sly shook his head and said something angrily in Spanish.

"I suppose it does not really matter now as we will both die soon."

Paige stood up abruptly, the room tilted dangerously but she kept her balance.

"No we are not." she growled.

He chuckled, "How did the Council ever miss you? You're Dracken is strong and you scent intoxicating. We Dracken are all over these Islands, not even the weakest could have missed you."

"Well obviously they did," she said angrily.

"Yes, but how? You could not have been taking the potion. You know no magic, have no schooling. What is that habit?"

She looked at him confused, and he nodded at her hands. She realized she was rubbing her wrist where her bracelet used to be. She bit her lip as an idea formed.

"You said...there was a potion...that could hide me?"

"Si, suppression potions, there are different kind, but in essence that are used to hide us from hoarders, they mask all our definable traits and suppress our Dracken instincts."

"What about...jewelry? On my sixteenth birthday I received a package, inside were a necklace and a bracelet. Nothing really strange ever happened until...until the American noticed it...and...and Ash. He noticed it too and got really angry. I ran away. That's how the Hoarders found me. The American recognized it and somehow connected me to the Drackens."

Sly nodded his expression furious, "That explains much Princessa. Stupid Stupid things those. They were outlawed years ago, I have no idea how you came to get them. They are dangerous, many Dracken were driven insane by them. You do not remember much, do you?...why you have those cuts on your body? How long you have been here...?

The fear that had been tying knots in her stomach since she woke up roared up and nearly choked her. She sank back to the ground, realize that he was right. She knew something had happened; it was in the way her body ached and shook, the dried blood and the cell. But she had no memory of it.

Suddenly she was in Sly's arms, her back against his chest, one of his arms were clamped around her shoulder and neck, the other held her tightly around the waist. They were sprawled on the ground, the fresh tang of blood in the air. The partially healed wounds on their bodies had split open again. She was panting, and her body shook from strain.

"Shhhh, Mi princessa, es bien. está a salvo. es quieto. aliento."

His words meant nothing to her but his tone and the soft wash of power behind them calmed her racing pulse and ragged breath. She began to cry great body shaking sobs. His arms loosened enough that she was able to turn and bury her head into the crook of his neck. He pushed them back up into a sitting position, settling her in his lap and slowly rocking her.

"Está bien, llora, está bien. It's okay, you cry Princessa. It will be okay."

"How...how many times?" she asked, "How many times have I lost it?"

Sly's nuzzled her hair, his warm breath brushed over her ears.

"They take you away, every morning." he said, his voice pained and desperate, "You come back weak, bleeding, and you do not remember. Today was the first time they placed us in the same cell. You have been in the one next to me for eight days. We have talked, but always, you forget. If I pretended to not know you, you trusted me, otherwise you did not talk to me. Sometimes I heard you...lose it. They come quickly and sedate you again."

"How long was I gone?" she asked.

"Not very long. You began to calm as soon as I grabbed you. I do not think they noticed." he said, "But you remember. That is a good sign."

"Why?"

"Because it means you and your Dracken are beginning to merge again. The suppression charms caused a split in your personalities. Your Dracken has been protecting you by making you forget until you were strong enough. The Hoarders have started talking of canceling their experiment, if we want to live your Dracken knows you need to know and remember."

She leaned against him in silence for a moment, absorbing the information.

"Will I ever remember what happened?" she asked quietly.

He didn't answer for a long time and she began to wonder if he would.

"I think...eventually you will. Your gift is seeing the past and the present. I think eventually all this will come back to you, when you are ready to handle it. Right now your magic and your Dracken are very unstable; I do not think it would do you any good to try."

She nodded, trusting his judgment and only slightly surprised by how easy that was to do.

"How many hoarders are here?" she asked. Her mind abandoning a problem she couldn't fix and latching on to one she knew she could.

He took her by the shoulders and pushed her back so he could look her in the face.

"I do not like this tone of yours...what are you planning mi princessa?"

"What my Dracken knew I could do...escape."

OOoOoO **A/N: **Sorry about the late post. I wanted to update it yesterday but I got behind in my school work and didn't have time to check for mistakes and things. I have not had a chance for my 'beta readers' to read the chapter but I'm posting it anyways.

So I'm excited that I have several people putting the story on alert I take that as I good sign as no one's really reviewed it so I haven't got a lot of feedback on the story. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!

Ta!

**Juniper87**


	4. Escape

**Disclaimer: All Previous Disclaimers Still Apply  
><strong>

**WARNING: Chapter contains violence...mostly violence actually...its a fight chapter!  
><strong>

**Psyco101:  
><strong>Thanks for being my only reviewer :D

* * *

><p><strong>Escape<strong>

Liam stomped down the stairs to the cellar of the magical warehouse. A tray, heavy with food, floated along behind him. As he banished nearly rancid meats and stale breads into each cell he passed he grumbled again about the lack of help. A few _Aguamenti_ spells filled bowls with water and he continued down to the end. He gripped his wand tighter the nearer he drew to the end cell. He had fresh scars on his arm from the two adult Dracken inside and his gut twisted in loathing for the dragon-ish creatures. He longed to rip those pretty white scales from the Submissive and make the Dominate watch. He would do it slowly to cause the maximum amount of pain from the little bitch.

Having to content himself to bleeding them slowly grated. He wanted to see all such abomination executed in the slowest, painful manner, the fact that they could use magic like proper wizards made his disgust for them boil into rage. Other Simi-intelligent humanoid creatures at least had the decency to stick to their own brand of magic.

Liam took a calming breath to cool his blood lust and approached the cell. A small disturbance had originated from this cell earlier, but it had not lasted long so he had assumed it was nothing to be concerned about. As he approached the cell door Jason realized he had been wrong.

They lay prone on the floor, covered in blood. How they managed to do so much damage to each other when both had been bled that morning confused him. He could just make out the shallow breathing of the Submissive, but the Dominate was completely still and too pale to still be alive.

"Stupid creatures." he sneered as he unlocked the cage. The Submissive death would put an end to the experimental breeding program so he hurried in to check her vitals.

She was low on blood and her pulse was slow. He hated to perform any sort of healing spell on the creature so he lifted his wand to send a message to his partner.

In a blink, Liam's wand was snatched from his hand, the Submissive was on her feet and out the door. Stunned he didn't even think about the other dominate before it was too late. A loud crack followed by brief pain and Liam slumped to the ground dead.

oVVVo

Paige clutched the wand to her, as she leaned against the wall just outside the cell. She heard the crack and thump of Liam's death then Sly walked out of the cell. Like her his body trembled from the adrenaline rush as well as blood loss.

She handed him the wand. A few flicks and he had them clothed in simple black robes synch at the waist with a black sash. He took her hand and together they made their way towards the stairs.

She noticed small faces pressed against bars, there were four cells, two children in each. The oldest had to be getting close to his sixteenth birthday, the youngest looked barely old enough to walk.

"Children!" she gasped, pulling her hand from Sly's.

"Si, stolen from Dracken families. No." he said seeing the look on her face," we will come back for them but we must get help."

She stepped back and turned to the nearest one, "No, I won't leave them here, not a moment longer."

Sly growled and she was lifted off her feet and the breath momentarily knocked from her lungs as she came down heavily over his shoulder.

"You're life is more important than these maybe Drackens."

She flailed against him, pounding against his back and kicking as she was raced from the room and up the stairs. They passed through a door and into a giant warehouse. Rows of massive wooden crate stretched out around them. Sly set her on her feet, but held her arm firmly preventing her from escaping.

"Shh, Princessa or you will alert the others."

She didn't have to worry about alerting anyone, at that moment a high pitch wail rent the air followed by a series of cracks that echoed around them. Sly shoved her behind a crate as spell fire bounced off the wall above her head.

He ducked down beside her, wincing in pain as it jarred his broken wing.

"Anti-apperation wards. How did they get in?" he growled.

Paige wasn't listening. She had tried to conceal her Dracken features; she didn't want to be tripping over her hair. Her Dracken wasn't having any of it and they were locked in a battle of wills. The Dracken side won. With a roar of rage Paige's wings sprouted from her back and she launched into the air, magic exploded around her. Something massive cracked and another alarm rent the air as she came down in a crouch on top of the tallest stack of crates. The sound similar to a wall collapsing shook the warehouse. She roared again, calling to any Dominates in the area. A cry for help, a warning of danger and she felt a resonating response from close by.

She grinned as the wizards fear stank up the warehouse.

"The wards have shattered!" someone shouted.

She launched off the crate and onto a wizard. His screams were cut off by her claws piercing his spine. She leapt from him and ducked behind a crate as a green spell shot through where she had been standing. She darted out again as the sound of fighting increased. She heard Sly's voice shouting spells and she began making her way towards him.

Pain seared across her lower back and she whirled around grabbing the face of the wizard who stood there with a bleeding dagger and wand. Her Dracken strength was waning but she managed to slam his head through the side of a crate. She snatched the wand and dagger from his hand and spun again to continue towards the only Dracken she knew.

She ducked behind another crate as a spell shot passed her shoulder. She launched into the air landing in the rafters above the fight. She jumped from beam to beam avoiding the spell fire. She could still hear Sly but she couldn't find him in the chaos of battle.

She stopped to catch her breath once the wizards below attention became consumed with the battle on the ground and tucked the stolen wand into her sash. She counted twelve uniformed Dracken. They used claw and wand with equal ease and moved in easy accordance with each other. The thirteen wizards fought with a disturbing ease against the Dracken; as if having trained for such fights.

She saw a wizard sneaking up on a tall dark skinned Dracken. She jumped from the rafters and on top of the wizard, slamming his body into the ground with all the force of her weight and jamming the dagger into the back of his head. Blood spurted all over her but she ignored it, leaping back into the rafters and watching the fight.

She still had the wand but she knew one spell and doubted it would do her any good. She found Sly, surrounded by four wizards. She leapt from the rafters aiming at one of the wizards.

A wooden crate caught her in the stomach thrown by a wizards spell. The force of it throwing her off course and into a stack of smaller shipping crates. The wood splintered under from the force of impact and she felt it pierce her side. Another crate toppled down, landing on her leg. She screamed in pain, the sharp snap of her leg breaking made her vision white out.

She lay panting in the pile of crates. Shouting and roaring Dracken echoed around her. Blood made her arms slick and she realized she had lost the wand. It took most of her remaining strength but she managed to move the broken crate. Potions mixed with glass, wood and blood coated her legs and back. The pain as she forced herself to move was excruciating and she screamed again.

She crawled out from the pile of crates then used her wings to keep her leg off the ground. She used the crates as shields to get higher again. She was almost to the rafters when a spell wrapped around her neck and jerked her back. She gave a chocked scream as she tumbled to ground. The spell released on impact and she lay still on the ground. No footsteps or spells followed and she assumed who ever had cast the spell had met his end shortly after casting it. She struggled to her feet, white hot pain slicing through her leg making bile rise in her throat. She took a few deep breaths, settling her stomach and pushing the pain to the back of her mind.

Paige blinked in confusion. She was huddled by the shattered remains of wooden crates, its contents spreading out around her soaking into her clothes. Her leg was bent and bloodied and her arm hung limply at her side her sleeve had a growing stain, though she wasn't sure if that was blood or from the crate her arm rested against. She stared at them in horror. She couldn't move or feel her arm and leg and she didn't _remember how it happened!_ There were shouts and lights going up around her. The sound of footsteps drew her attention.

"Sly?" she called out tentatively.

"You are far more trouble than a muggle raised Sub should be."

The speaker came around the stack of creates pointing his wand at her. She stood slowly, the effort very difficult with only one working arm and leg. His British accent was very cultured, and aged. He wore a hood which concealed his face, but she could smell the Dracken in him and see the glint of scales on his hand.

"I know you." she whispered, his voice was very familiar.

"You are too valuable to just kill. The last in the Ravenclaw line, just the chance that your daughter would be able to see the future the way your mother did is worth keeping you alive."

The hair on her neck stood on end and ice rushed through her veins.

"I remember you."

oVVVVo

_A low murmur of voices brought her back to consciousness. It took her a moment to realize she was tied to chair. The armrest looked as though it had grown around her wrist. The legs of the chair trapped her in a vice like grip. Fear and pain pumped through her veins. _

_"She's awake." she looked up at the sound of the smoky baritone with a British accent. She inhaled deeply; the smell of the two of them was both revolting and intriguing. They both had the smell that reminded her of Ash._

_The older one, with the British accent, stood in the shadows making it hard to really see him. She felt his eyes on her though; it made her skin crawl with fear. He had lost his grandson recently and for some reason he blamed her. The knowledge came unbidden; as did that his recent loss had made him obsessed with harvesting the children of other Drackens, and one Dracken in particular, but needed her to accomplish his revenge. _

_She growled at him. If he thought he was going to get anywhere near her chick..._

_"What's the plan?" the younger one's accent was more Mediterranean. He was dressed straight from a fantasy novel in wizards robes over a poet style shirt and black trousers. He held a stick in his hand and his soulless brown eyes watched her dispassionately as though studying an animal he would soon dissect for study._

_"She's half crazy." he continued, "All those months wearing these." he waved his hand and she recognized her necklace and bracelet," Her magic is dangerously unstable and looks to be growing. Really the only thing she has going for her is beauty and fertility."_

_"Oh...she has more than that. She's Winry Webster's daughter, I would have recognized her anywhere." the older one said. _

_The younger one looked at her with interest now. "I though she died in the fire with her parents. Can she..?"_

_"Maybe, but as you said, she is crazy. I think it is time we attempt the breeding program. One of her daughters will be gifted and her daughter will be able to tell us when and where Drackens will be born. No more guessing and wasting money on humans."_

_Paige growled, a sound she barely recognized coming from her. But these men were talking about her chicks. She wanted to rip their tongues from their bodies for saying it. She wanted to gouge out their eyeballs. _

_She sat back heavily, panting, her arms and legs throbbed. There was only one man present now, the younger one. She tried to remember seeing the other leave but couldn't. She was so tired._

_"Who are you?" she asked as he cautiously approached, wand out and aimed between her eyes. _

_He watched her expectantly, waiting for her to lash out. She looked back down at her shackled wrist and was surprised to the the wood had splintered. It still encased her arms and legs, but the wood was cracked. Blood seeped out of her wrists and hand as well as her legs. _

_She cried. She couldn't help it, the tears welled up and fell down her cheeks and she hunched forward in the chair and sobbed. She was so confused and hurt and so so scared. Her sobs became keening wails and the wails became roars. She felt an answering echo in her bones but too far away to bring her comfort and safety._

_She had not been paying attention because time had passed and the other wizard was back. She hurt even more now from what felt like thousands of slices all over her body. He held a vial of blood in his hand with a grim smile on his face. _

_Her clothes clung to her in shreds. Her chair was different, metal now instead of wood. The cold bands clamped tightly to her wrists and ankles. She was too weak now to do more than tug feebly._

_"Submissive blood. The rates have increased what with the decline of our numbers. I think she's ready. Place her in the cell with the Dominate. Make sure to monitor them closely, we would not want her to accidently kill her mate now would we Liam?"_

_Liam, the one who hurt her. _

_"I believe you got a little carried away this time. It might require a new set of potions in order to convince the Dominate to over look her ruined face. The damage is a bit excessive. Whatever did she do to incite your rage?"_

_Liam glowered at her but didn't answer._

_"Do keep her alive Liam. The breeding program won't work with a dead Submissive."_

_"Of course." Liam replied. It did not escape her notice that he was not the least bit sorry for his "excessive damage." He seemed put out that he had to be 'careful' with her at all. _

_"It really is a shame." the older man grabbed her hair and tilted her head back, the tears in her eyes blurred her vision and she whimpered with pain, " My grandson would have enjoyed her I'm sure, she was pretty, and to add the Ravenclaw line in with my own would have been quite the coup. Not as grand as having Potter, but still nothing to sneeze at."_

_He shoved her head back when he released her and hit the side of the chair painfully leaving her dazed._

_"Keep me informed Liam."_

oVVVVo

Now the same man who would use her daughter to steal and murder others was standing before her with nothing but a wand keeping her from ripping him to pieces. She let all her fury and anger out in a roar and a powerful burst of magic the leapt from her like a sonic wave. She flew at him claws out and furious. Crates burst open and toppled around, something exploded adding a second shock wave and a burst of heat.

He was gone with a _crack_ and she was left amidst broken crates and spilt potions and the crackle of fire. Her wings beat gently keeping her inches from ground and she howled in fury. Then she was surrounded by uniformed Dracken. Sly stood before her supported by two of them. Their smell and power and scents overwhelmed her. Someone caught her as her strength finally gave out. Snarls and growled flowed around her but she did not care and she let her head rest against his shoulder and her eyes drift shut. She was safe.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** So Yay for 100+ Hits! I really like the Hit system, I know people are actually reading my fan-fiction even if they aren't reviewing :/ Anyhow I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	5. Mount Taranaki

**Disclaimer: Standard Disclaimer...is this even necessary at this point?**

**Drackens belong to Starlight Massacre and Beautiful Kaos.  
><strong>

**Thanks to those who have put this story on alert and/or their favorites list! **

**the lady elf**

**bandit32**

**kikomimo727**

**ren11sen- **Thanks for the review!  
>I hope I do Massacre and Kaos' creatures justice. I hope you enjoy this chapter!<p>

**oVVVoVVVo  
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**Chapter Five- Mount Taranaki**

The Dracken Enclave was built into the side of Mt. Taranaki. It was heated at a constant twenty six degrees Celsius by an underground magma chamber. The Enclave was an intricate cave system. The largest cavern was the main city, and consisted of a market, a council hall, and classrooms. Long hallways curved deeper into the mountain branching to family compounds. Built high in the enclave were two compounds separated by a large communal room. One consisted of over one hundred rooms designated for unmated Dominate Drackens. The other was a series of suites that would house up to fifty submissive Drackens. These suites were rarely used and until now closed off. The Enclave was home, school and work place for many Drackens. It was a refuge for many Dracken families and had several wings and additions added as more families fled from the nations that outlawed the Dracken.

For Medi-witch Iris Anise it was all of that. Iris had devoted her life to the health of the other Dracken in the Enclave since her family was captured and murdered on trumped up charges by the British Ministry.

She had seen and healed everything from minor bumps and scrapes to the ravaged rescued from Poachers. When the notice came that a Dracken Rescue Attack and Containment Operations(D.R.A.C.O) unit had found a Poacher base outside Inglewood's Magic District she called in all her assistants and apprentices as well as contacting other healers close enough to come in at such short notice.

The first to arrive were two DRACO Unit Dracken's with eight children varying from ages three to fifteen. They were immediately sent to the children's ward and the three healers they had there. Mere moments from the children's departure, Captain Arapeta appeared clutching a bloodied mess to his chest.

"Lay her down quickly!" Anise and her assistant worked in tandem to clean the worst of the blood away and check damage. Within moments they had monitoring spells up and stabilized. What followed was a long weary night of healing and near misses. Many of the injuries should have been easily fixed with spell and potions but the presences of a mixture of foreign potions based with Dracken blood interfered with many of the magiks. Before the night was up Anise was calling upon muggle techniques from one of her assistance. Twelve intense hours later the young Dracken vitals were stable and most of the damage repaired. It would be another twelve hours of observation before they would know if all the healing would be enough to save her.

oVVVo

Paige woke to absolute silence. White curtains draped the ceiling above her and the walls around her. Dim light lit the room around her. It had the feeling of a hospital without the machines and antiseptic smell. Everything seemed incredibly sterile and quiet as death. She tried to sit up but found her arms and legs unresponsive. She focused on moving her fingers and toes and found them responsive, but nothing else would move.

Panic took hold; something was restraining her but she couldn't _see_ it. She tried to cry out for help but her throat burned as if she had swallowed shards of glass and it turned into agonizing cough.

A door opened somewhere beyond her vision and the sound of heels on stone hurried closer. An older woman appeared at her bedside. She had very kind blue eyes set in a very severe face. Graying black hair was swept back in a loose bun. She wore dark blue robes with a white apron. The women's face broke into a relieved smile.

"Oh, I am so glad to see you awake. You have given us quite the scare lass. Do not try to move," she said kindly, "Not all of your wounds have sealed as they should and I am afraid too much movement will cause them to split again. I have you under some harmless binding spells, I will remove them but you must move slowly. Nod if you understand me dear."

Paige nodded slowly. The women smiled, the action softening the harshness of her face and Paige found herself relaxing. The women waved her wand and Paige tentatively lifted an arm. It was wrapped completely in white gauze; she felt twinges up her arm as the movement pulled at healing skin and muscle.

"Who-" Paige tried, the effort to speak sending her into another coughing fit.

"Shh, Shh, there there. Here, drink some water."

A glass was pressed against her lips and Paige eagerly drank the cool mint flavored water.

"Who are you?" she managed, her throat still felt raw and she coughed reflexively.

"I am Medi-Witch Iris Anise, you may call me Madam Anise. You are in a private room in the hospital wing of the Dracken Enclave. Do you remember what brought you here?"

Paige nodded slowly, surprised that she did in fact remember. She remembered the fight in the parking lot, Liam and the British Dracken, she remembered Sly and the escape. She remembered fighting, and killing the wizards.

She felt her stomach heave at the memory and she rolled over vomiting up the water and stomach bile. Tears streamed from her eyes as she continued to dry heave and cough. The mess was removed almost instantly by Anise. Paige remained on her side shaking and crying.

Anise gently rolled her back onto her back, offering her a glass of colored liquid. Paige obediently drank it. It tasted vaguely like cough medicine but she felt calmer afterwards. She sniffled a few more times then looked back at Anise pain etched on every inch of her face.

"I killed them." she whispered, "I killed those men and I _enjoyed_ it."

Anise smiled kindly, "Of course you did dear. Your Dracken responded to the threat the way anyone of us would have. Those men have killed hundreds of us. Anyone here will thank you for your actions, who knows who you saved by their deaths."

Paige nodded accepting Anise's words and easing her conscious.

"Would you like to try to sit up?" Anise asked.

Paige nodded and with very little effort on the nurses part Anise was able to maneuver Paige into a sitting position. Anise stacked and fluffed pillows behind her.

"Where is Sly?" Paige asked once she was settled.

Anise shook her head, "His family requested he be moved to Spain for recovery. I have heard the others mention he is doing well and will be flying again soon."

Paige nodded; a slight pang twisted her heart at the thought that he was so far away. Though she still couldn't remember any conversations before the escape she still felt a connection to him.

"Do you feel hungry?" Anise asked.

Paige shook her head no. She stared down at her arms, both of them were where wrapped in gauze, her left arm was stiffer than her right. She recalled the second stack of crates that fell on her and broke it before her Dracken strength had given out and she returned to herself.

"Did they find the children?" she asked the Medi-witch.

Anise smiled, "Yes, they were returned to their families four days ago."

Paige looked at her startled, "Four days! How long have I been here?"

"Eight days."

Paige was almost afraid to ask the next question, "How long have I been awake?"

"Off and on for a few hours over the last three days." Anise answered, "Though, this is the first time your Dracken has let you out."

Paige closed her eyes, she felt like she should be panicking at this, but whatever Anise had given her stopped the panic from setting in.

"I don't remember any of that." she admitted.

"Of course not. You're Dracken is very protective of you, but very much wants to become one with you again."

Paige nodded at the Medi-witch's words. Her throat felt tight and her stomach twisted unpleasantly again. Her Dracken may want to be 'one' again, but Paige did not want anything to do with the world "her Dracken" had thrust her into.

"It is going to be a long process, Paige." Anise warned her, "and one that will not be done on your own. How much do you know about your Dracken?"

"Not very much." Paige admitted. She yawned. Madam Anise produced two potions from somewhere while Paige wasn't paying attention.

"Here dear, drink these, then you should sleep."

"What are they?" she asked, eyeing the blue and orange liquids.

"You have magic and spell damage in your arm and leg. You also have deposits in your soft tissue of the potions they used to sedate you. It is inhibiting your body from producing enough blood or utilizing your energy intake in a sufficient manor to support your body and magic. These potions strengthen your body and magic. These two potions will need to be taken every morning, Paige, every morning or you risk relapsing. It is very important you take them."

"There isn't a spell or something that would remove them?" Paige asked.

"Not yet, "Anise said with a shake of her head, "The potions are new, we've never seen them before. But between the effects we have observed from you and the potions the D.R.A.C.O Unit brought back we will be searching for ways to counter act it. Until then..." she looked at Paige pointedly.

"Every morning." Paige responded and, with a sigh, drank both potions. The blue one tasted vaguely like milk and thyme and the orange one had a thick gooey consistency that reminded her of cake batter with a grassy taste. She drank another glass of water then, with the Medi-witches help, laid back down and drifted off to sleep.

She woke again a few hours later, the room around her brighter though she saw no obvious source of light. She was able to get herself into a sitting position before Madam Anise appeared beside her. There was a man with her this time. Paige blinked up at the intimidating giant of a man. He had a grim craggy face and iron grey hair. His dark brown eyes watched her with an uncomfortable intensity. He was close to seven feet tall and built like an American linebacker. Thick muscles strained the fitted material of his uniform. The letters D.R.A.C.O were embroidered on his shirt over his heart with the emblem of a dragon winged wand. Russet brown wings were folded behind his shoulders; terracotta scales covered his face in a vague snake like pattern.

Paige swallowed nervously, power radiated from him in waves. She was pretty sure he could snap her half with two fingers and she wasn't too sure that wasn't what he wanted to do.

"Really Elder. She just woke up, she should have something to eat at least before you start interrogating her!" Anise said. She looked irritated and frazzled.

Paige felt slightly nauseas at the thought of food. She shook her head, "It's okay. I don't mind."

Anise gave her a vaguely threatening look and Paige looked down at her hands.

"I am going to go get some nice hot porridge and you will eat it young lady." Anise didn't wait for a response before turning on her heels and shooting one last glare at the Elder before leaving.

"I am Elder Sacha Oleg Shkadov, head of Dracken Rescue Attack and Containment Operations." His voice had a slight Russian accent to it," My Oceana Unit was deployed to New Zealand eight months ago to search for a Dracken who came into her inheritance on August 4th. Are you that Dracken?"

"Yes, I think so."

"My men responded to the distress call of a Submissive Dracken eight days ago outside of Inglewood. Was that also you?"

"No...I mean yes...but it was my Dracken..."

The Elder grunted in displeasure.

"You are a Dracken."

Paige nodded affirmative.

"On August 4th Hannah Maplewood saw your transformation. On September 1st she reported to her headmaster her suspicions. On September 2nd my men searched for you in Hawera and found your scent, but could not trace it. You disappeared, how?"

Paige shook her head, "I don't-"

"Do you recognize these?" He pulled a red cloth from his robes, carefully he opened them; her necklace and bracelet were nestled amongst the cloth. Compulsively she reached for them.

"Yes they are-" He covered them up again with a quick snap and tucked them back into his robes, "mine." she finished.

"You are unaware that suppression charms were outlawed by the Council of Elders nearly six years ago."

"No...I mean yes...I mean Sly told me that when we were-" she choked on the words, suddenly gripped by terror. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest and she had difficulty breathing. She clenched and unclenched her hands in the blanket.

Someone tipped back her head and cool liquid pooled into her mouth. She swallowed and blinked a few times. Her heart slowed and her breathing returned to normal. She looked up at Elder Shkadov who watched her with a mild look of concern.

"I'm sorry." she said quietly.

He grunted in response then straitened, vanishing an empty glass. As if she hadn't just had a panic attack he continued.

"The charms had, along with the suppression ability, a notice me not and confundus spell that worked by smell rather than skin contact. You're mother was rather ingenious with her jewelry. The charm I believe is responsible for the split in your Dracken and human personalities." he said.

She looked at him," Wait, my mother?"

He nodded, "Winry Webster. I took the liberty of ordering a genealogy work up of your blood to discover where your line comes from. You are the daughter of Winry Webster and Ryujin Yanagi. You're mother was the last in the line of Rowena Ravenclaw a famous Scottish Witch. You're mother's ability to predict a Dracken's birth was highly sought by other Drackens. You are her only surviving daughter. Sylvester Osorio report stated you did not inherited her ability to see the future rather an ability to see the past or present of someone through eye contact or contact with something or someone with a strong connection to them. Is this true?"

"Yes. Did any of her sons survive? Do I have any family still alive?"

"Yes. That is not relevant at the moment."

Paige growled, "Of course it's relevant! If I have a family out there I want to know about it! Who are they? Where are they? Are they Dracken like me?"

"My D.R.A.C.O Unit uncovered a lot of information at the ware house, two of them reported that you saved their lives in battle." he continued completely ignoring her questions, " Your presence at the warehouse also saved the lives of some of the Council members children or grandchildren. As such, the Council has put me in charge of seeing you healed and settled with however many Dominate mates you need to stabilize your Dracken and your Magic. I have brought my Britain Mated Unit with me to help with your safety and the selection process."

"I'm sixteen!" she cried, "I can't be 'mated'!"

"You are a legal adult by both New Zealand law as stated by your emancipation papers as well as the Dracken Council of Elders. As a Submissive finding a dominate should be your priority."

"Her priority, Elder, should be getting well." Anise entered the room bearing a tray.

"As discussed Medi-witch Anise, her healing will be hastened by selecting her first Dominate." there was a warning in his tone and a message was passed between the two of them that Paige did not understand.

"What if I don't pick a mate?" she asked.

Anise laughed, "Oh lass, you're Dracken will pick a mate, instinct will tell you never fear."

Paige did not feel very comforted by this information. Maybe she was an adult by legal standards, but she wasn't ready to get married, or mated or whatever the Dracken's did. Anise set the trey down over her lap.

"Eat up." she said sternly before turning to the Elder, " Elder Shkadov, I hope that is all the questioning you'll need for now. Miss Willows needs food and rest."

Elder Shkadov nodded currently, "We will speak again Miss Willows. I have my men posted outside your door. Good day."

He made a sharp military turn and left the room. Paige stared down at the porridge in her lap. Her stomach rolled again at the prospect of food, though some of it could also be her impending 'marriage'.

"Eat." Anise said again.

Very reluctantly Paige lifted the spoon to her mouth. Her life was never going to be normal again.

oVVVVo

Elder Shkadov returned the next day with a handful of books and a stack of papers. He set the books on her bedside table then settled himself into a chair he conjured with a wave of his wand.

"Madam Anise expects your stay in the hospital to be a long one. Rather than waste time, you will use your confinement to this room as a time to familiarize yourself with the world you are now a part of. These books touch on the history of the wizarding world. I procured the textbooks from the school list. These three books are history, level 1 charms and transfigurations, and a bestiary. Your grandmother, Rowena Ravenclaw I believe is mentioned in the first two."

Paige picked up the first book. It was heavy and leather bound, the pages made from a parchment type paper.

"I know one spell." she offered.

The corner of Shkadov's mouth twitched and she felt her cheeks warm.

"Yes. I heard about that." there was humor in his voice and she smiled sheepishly in response. She opened her book and said nothing more.

After eating her porridge yesterday she had begged Madam Anise for the chance to use the only spell she knew, Aguamenti, to refill her glass. She ended up overpowering the spell and drenched the entire room in a foot of water. It had also drained her so much she had slept the rest of the day and most of the morning. Madam Anise was adamant that she would not touch another wand until after she had found a Dominate to stabilize her magic or risk killing herself on a simple Aguamenti spell.

A lack of wand, apparently, did not excuse her from at least learning about magic. She was happy to learn that despite the many lapses in memory she now had her ability to retain studied information was intact. When Madam Anise came in with her dinner she had already ready through the history book and begun on the bestiary.

Anise looked a little harried and shot a very annoyed look at Elder Shkadov.

"You are needed outside." she said to Shkadov in a clipped note.

Shkadov lifted a thick black eyebrow at Anise before unfolding from his chair and leaving the room. Anise set the tray down on the side table with a huff.

"A hospital, wing or otherwise is no place for unmated Dominates." she waved her wand.

Paige felt the familiar tingle of magic as the diagnostic spell told Anise all her vitals levels. Anise frowned.

"Your fever has returned. How do you feel?"

She was tired, so absorbed in reading she hadn't really notice how weak and shaking her limbs had become or the light sweat that had broken on her brow. She heard some scuffling and growling from beyond her door distracting her from her medi-witch's question.

"What's going on out there?" she asked.

Anise smiled, it seemed tight and forced, "You have some admirers already. Men from the D.R.A.C.O unit who saw you fight. They are most eager to hear of your return to health. One in particular is insistent he see you."

"Sly?" she asked hopefully.

Anise shook her head, "No, a man named Ash Riggerton."

Paige's face lit up with a grin, "Ash! Can I see him? Please? We were friends...before."

"Absolutely not!" Anise looked shocked, "It is against all protocol for an unmated Dominate to spend time with a Submissive before all other Dominates have been summoned."

"But I know Ash!" Paige growled at Anise.

"No." Anise said sternly and answering growl in her voice.

Paige huffed in irritation, crossing her arms and looking away from her nurse. Her Dracken must have taken over because the next thing Paige new she was laying down and the lights were only a very dim glow. Her muscles ached and the tang of fresh blood lingered around her. She sat up, the motion pulled at her side sending daggers of pain down the length of her body. Her hospital shirt was open revealing her chest wrapped in bandages from shoulder to hip. A red stain was spreading out from her ribs, she winced and stopped moving. The room around her looked untouched but she faintly recalled ripping at the curtains in uncontained rage. She shook her head to dispel the image. She did not want to know what her Dracken had done or said.

She looked to the side and was surprised to see Elder Shkadov asleep in his chair. There was a day's worth of growth on his face and his uniform looked rumpled and worn.

"Elder?" she whispered softly.

He was up in an instant, wand up and pointed at her tip glowing with an unleashed spell. She flinched raising her arms over her face as a shield.

"Miss Willow?" he asked cautiously.

She lowered her arms watching the tip of his wand which was now unlit.

"What did I do?" she asked, though she did not really want to know the answer.

Elder Shkadov must have picked up on her feelings for he cleared his throat and shook his head, "Nothing that could not be fixed."

"What day is it?" she asked hesitantly.

"Saturday morning." he informed her.

His newspaper from earlier had said Wednesday. She winced, two days gone.

"Your side was infected with some residual potions from the warehouse. We lost you for a moment last night, we were not sure if you would wake up again. I am glad to see you are stronger than Madam Anise's expectations."

Unsure how to respond to that she said nothing, instead began buttoning up her shirt. She was covered in enough bandages that her modesty wasn't in question, but she felt better doing something with her hands. She wondered how many brushes with death that made.

"We still do not know all the effects of the mixed potions in your blood stream. Madame Anise and her apprentices predict you may be prone to bouts of fever and sickness for years to come."

Paige did not like the way that sounded. She could count the number of times she had been sick on one hand. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life in and out of the sick ward.

"You're magic has been kept the potions from doing any fatal damage to your body, combined with the potions you take daily I do not see this affecting your life too much. Madam Anise has assured me that it won't affect your breeding abilities. It may narrow your prospective mates. Hearing that you are frail, combined with your...injuries, may send many of the young and foolish away."

She looked up at him sharply, "My injuries?"

He looked vaguely uncomfortable meeting her gaze, "Some of your injuries have left...marks. Dracken are vain, especially the younger and more hot headed. I am afraid they may look at your scars and not look any further. However I believe this will be a good way of weeding out those of unacceptable dispositions. You need a strong self controlled Dominates who can stabilize your magic and handle your bouts of...sickness."

"You mean my crazy." she said bitterly, looking him in the eye and daring him to deny it.

He nodded curtly, "Just so. It is of course a temporary condition. I have seen it before, if you are strong you will make a full recovery and you and your Dracken side will be merged again. Miss Willow, accepting your Dracken and magic will be the difference between life and death. The longer you deny your true self the more unstable your Dracken and magic become. I believe the first step is to maintain your Dracken features. Thus far your Dracken has always used your human visage and Dracken features as a boundary. I believe if you voluntarily keep your Dracken features it will begin the healing process."

Paige stared at him. Resentment and fear warred for dominance. She hated what those 'Dracken features' represented. Her life as she knew it was gone. She wasn't human anymore, she was some hybrid freak show with scales and wings. Except that it was her heritage, her parents were Dracken and magical. She would be lying if she said she did not think the scales on her skin weren't beautiful, or the fact that Sly had been incredibly desirable despite the bloodied and battered state they had been in. In the end she decided to do as Elder Shkadov suggested. She was going to be surrounded by Dracken for a while anyhow, no point not blending in. She took a deep breath and, letting it out, released her Dracken features. Something in her chest loosened as if suddenly a part of her had clicked into place that had be disjointed before.

She touched her red hair that now tumbled around her shoulders and pooled in her lap and on the bed around her.

"You have beautiful hair." he observed, his voice held a touch of satisfaction in that. "You're scales are a lovely white and quite the unique pattern. My men will be happy when you are recovered enough to begin selecting a Dominate."

"But..." she touched her face feeling the bandages that covered her cheek and nose.

"They have scars of their own. Your power and courage impressed them and they know of your sickness. They wait with baited breathe for news of your progress. They have been insufferable since your rescue I have had to discipline them with menial task to keep them in line."

Paige giggled at the mental picture of the hulking soldiers scrubbing dishes. She couldn't deny the relief his words brought. The thought of no Dominate wanting her had made her feel slightly panicked.

Shkadov made a grunting noise, "I can tell it has already started."

She looked at him in confusion.

"You have accepted the need for a Dominate, and I can see even desire one."

She realized he was right and felt a blush spread across her cheeks. She was sixteen and looking forward to finding a mate as soon as possible.

"Are you mated Elder Shkadov?" she asked.

A softness she had not seen before appeared in his eyes.

"Yes, Sofia. She is at home in Mascow with Dominic and our three youngest children."

Paige smiled "How many children do you have?"

"Thirteen," he said proudly, "My eldest is thirty and my youngest are three. Triplets, fraternal twins both and a girl, all three of them are Dracken. My son Frederick will be nineteen this year and is also a Dracken. He will arrive as soon as the call is sent to the other Dominates."

"I look forward to meeting him." she said honestly.

Elder Shkadov chuckled, it was a harsh sound despite the humor in it, "He is young and still foolish. He could be good for you, and perhaps you for him, but I do not think he is the one for you. However much I may wish to see him settled."

Paige felt a little tension release as she realized that Elder Shkadov was keeping her interest in mind and would not use his place as her chaperone to further is own. She nodded her understanding.

"Is there any news on Sly?" she asked.

Elder Shkadov's face hardened at the mention of her fellow escapee and his eyes would not meet hers.

"What is it? What happened?" worst case scenarios began running through her mind.

"We found evidence of a Dracken help in the warehouse. They have an inside source."

Paige gaped at what he was insinuating. Anger flushed her cheeks, "Sly was not working for them!" she said hotly, "He was a prisoner like me! He helped with the escape he even killed Liam!"

"It is still suspicious that they kept him alive for so long. He disappeared six months ago while the bodies of his unit were found dead, drained and harvested."

"Isn't there a spell or something you can use to tell that he is telling the truth?"

Elder Shkadov's face hardened more, "Yes. Sylvester Osorio is one of my men though. He has undergone extensive training since he was eleven years old and is resistant to those methods. We cannot trust what he says and his memories have been altered and removed. This is very suspicious for a mere 'captive'."

Paige felt mildly sick and shook her head in denial, "No. Sly was not part of them! There was a Dracken but he was British!"

Elder Shkadov eyes sharpened. "You remember that?"

Paige nodded her head franticly, "I never saw his face, but he was an older man with a British accent. He said he had lost his grandson recently. He's helping the Poachers to get revenge on the Drackens responsible. It wasn't Sly!"

Elder Shkadov stared at her silently for several moments before he nodded his head curtly, "We will look into this. You should sleep. I will be back in the morning. My men will be outside your door."

Madam Anise came in a few moments after Elder Shkadov left.

"That man!" she groused, "I cannot believe he did not come get me immediately when you woke."

Madam Anise looked exhausted; her skin paler than normal and dark circles ringed her eyes. Her hair normally in a neat bun fell in tendrils around her face. She waved her wand and clicked her tongue. With another wave the buttons of Paige's shirt came apart and Anise huffed with anger at the sight of the bloody wrappings.

"Really." she growled. Another wave and the wrappings vanished, she produced a pasty grey salve and smeared it over the crescent shaped wound on Paige's ribs. The sharp smell made Paige sneeze violently, producing another sluggish round of blood. With a few waves of her wand Anise had Paige cleaned and bandaged again.

"Now then." she said, vanishing her supplies, "How do you feel? You're fever is gone and your iron count is good, but I'm going to get you another replenishing potion just to be safe. Those potions are still interfering with your body's blood production."

"I am tired." Paige admitted with a yawn and lay down.

"Don't go to sleep just yet, let me get that potion first." Anise disappeared out the door. Paige was barely awake enough when Anise returned to drink the metallic tasting potion and a glass of water. She fell asleep to Anise's growls about Elder Shkadov.

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><p><strong>AN:** Sorry for the late update, this chapter did not get beta read and I was just uber lazy this weekend so put off doing my own editing. I hope I caught everything :/...Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Over 150 visitors to my story :D

Reviews are most welcome, questions comments and concerns will be given promptish responses :) I like hearing that you like it too ;)

Next update is still scheduled for this Saturday :) Happy Thanksgiving to ya'll Americans!


	6. Out Of The Hospital, Into The Fray

**Disclaimer: **The usual. I don't own Harry Potter, and the Dracken Concept belongs to Beautiful Kaos and Starlight Massacre.

This chapter has not been beta read, so I can safely say there are some glaring errors that I still haven't caught. Sorry!

**Thanks to all who have favorited/alerted this story since last time!**

**Reviewers:**

**Ashley280: **Sorry, there really wasn't a reason I didn't update beyond I spent most of the day out of the house. Don't worry about being pushy! I was gonna wait until tomorrow to update but your review convinced me to go ahead and post! I'm glad you like my fic! I'm having lots of fun writing it :)

**tolazytosignin: **thanks!

**NinjaHarryPotter4life: **Yay! I like hearing I've done something unique;) hope you enjoy this update.

**():** thanks**!  
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><p><strong>Chapter Six- Out Of The Hospital, Into The Fray.<strong>

By mid April, a solid week after her last 'episode' Madam Anise pronounced her healthy enough to leave the bed. Paige had managed to study half way through the first year theory of her wizarding education. She eagerly anticipated acquiring her own wand and learning actual magic not just theory and history. She was also happily in possession of her heredity chart that traced her mother's line all the way back to Rowena Ravenclaw a founder of the British school Hogwarts and the human daughter of a Dracken pair. Rowena's first daughter, Fenella, was a Dracken and at birth taken and raised by her Dracken grandparents the political climate made it dangerous for Rowena to keep her. Paige found most of the names of the women whose portraits hung in her library at home, some of the names were missing from her chart and she assumed that that meant they were distant aunts and cousins, or human and not Dracken. All of them she was able to confirm were reported Seers like her mother. She also found that she had twenty nine siblings, sixteen who still lived, all of them her brothers. She had written an introductory letter to each one that Madam Anise had duplicated fifteen times and agreed to owl.

Owls! Paige thought it was both a wonderful and silly way of delivering messages. She found that the wizarding world was both hopelessly backwards and wonderful advanced in so many ways.

She had to take a few strengthening potions before she was allowed out of the bed and she still found the process of supporting her body exhausting. By the end of the day she was able to walk to the washroom unassisted. Washing her ridiculously long hair took a long time but she felt more herself afterwards and cleaner than any number of _Scourgify_ and _Refreshing_ Charms could accomplish. It was in the shower that Paige finally had a look at the damage done to her. She stood stared down at her arms and legs and stomach and the many small reminders of Liam's 'careful' ministrations. There were not-so-little scars that marred her arms and legs, and standing in front of the mirror she realized he had left his mark on her face as well.

For all the spells and potions and Dracken blood used on her, not everything could be healed perfectly. Her top lip had a small nick in it; her nose had a scar that cut across the bridge a thin puckered scar ran from her ear to her jaw on the right side of her face. A crescent shaped scar cupped her ribs under her arm, another sliced across her left thigh. Her left arm had a thin white scar from the bend of her elbow to her palm, and her right wrist was a mangled mess of scars as though someone had poured acid on it.

Elder Shkadov's words about the vanity of Dracken, along with what she had read in her books, came back to her. She had never really thought about how she had looked. Living in the orphanage or in Foster care she had focused on her school work and plans for getting out and on her own. Her life had been about survival and staying out of the way of the adult in her life. Even after her sixteenth birthday with the change in her body-type and the improvement in her looks she hadn't really cared. She had gotten more attention from the boys at the hot spring, but they had been just that, boys, and she wasn't interested.

Now, staring at what she considered a ruined face and body, she felt lost.

A knock on the bathroom door pulled her from her train of thought before she could sink into deeper misery. Madam Anise opened the door, a stack of clothes in her arms.

"Here you are. Sara, one of the Dracken's living here is about your size and she gave me these for you to use until we can get you outfitted with proper clothes.

The clothes turned out to be a pair of jeans and a black jumper with a dark blue open robe with a single dragon claw clasp. Paige let Anise help her dress, her legs and arms beginning to shake from use. Sara was of a similar size but was several inches taller than Paige. She had to roll the jeans up twice to keep from stepping on them and the robes would have dragged the ground if Madam Anise had not applied a shrinking charm to them.

For the first time she began to feel a little like an actual witch and she couldn't help smiling at her reflection. Madam Anise used a spell to untangle the worst of her hair and a magic brush to get it to fall into soft curls. Elder Shkadov stood patiently by the door waiting to escort her to her new rooms.

Paige was surprised to see Dracken men milling about outside the hospital wing. As soon as she and Elder Shkadov appeared wings began flaring around her and growls and snarls irrupted. Frightened, she stepped closer to her escort clutching his robes like a child. The sudden level of power and aggression that surrounded her made her dizzy as she felt her Dracken attempt to respond.

Shkadov growled warningly at a Dracken who looked like he was going to approach. Two mated Dominates followed behind them fangs barred in warning at all the unmated Dominates they passed. Eventually they passed down a hall the others did not follow them down and she relaxed.

"Is it always going to be like that?" she asked.

"That is only the beginning my dear. Tomorrow the call goes out and Drackens will begin arriving. Many of them have gathered in England for the submissive there. Elder Trintus, the usual submissive chaperone, is there overseeing what we believe to be his grounding mate selection. That should be taking place soon and all who are not picked will then arrive here within the next week or so."

Paige looked up at him with sudden interest, "Another Submissive?"

Shkadov nodded, "Harry Potter." he said, and his tone said the name should mean something to her. She stared at him with confused interest.

He grunted, "I suppose he has not been in any of the books I brought you. You should know. He is very famous in the wizarding world, especially to the British." Elder Shkadov launched into the story of You-Know-Who's reign of terror and its sudden end by the Boy-Who-Lived last year. He commented on the coup it was for the Dracken that the Wizarding world's savior was also a Dracken.

"The last update Elder Trintus sent the council was that he had mated with two Dominates at once. Remarkable, very remarkable, combined with the fact that his Dracken chose his first mate over a single hand shake. Mr. Potter seems to defy all limits of probability. I am very interested in the kind of children he will produce. By all accounts Mr. Potter is exceptionally beautiful Submissive, and obviously a very powerful individual."

Paige felt the panic from her first view in the mirror begin to return. Many of the Dominates she would meet would be coming in from England. She felt her throat tighten at the thought. She could never compare to Harry Potter. Elder Shkadov assured her that if she chose them no Dominate would say no, there weren't enough submissive being born for them to pass up the opportunity.

But she did not want her Dominate to hate her, or be disgusted by her. She wanted him to want her, not just because his Dracken did. But how could any of them want her when they had Harry Potter to compare her too? She had scares that could not be hidden.

Elder Shkadov seemed oblivious to her distress as he continued telling her about Harry Potter and his growing family.

"Ah, here we are!" he said, stopping so suddenly that Paige bumped into him.

He shot her look that seemed between irritation and confusion as if he did not know why she was distracted.

He ushered her through a thick wooden door. Her new room was comfortably large with a fire place dominating one wall and a king bed taking up the majority of the space. A table for two was set up near the door and a wardrobe against the wall next to the washroom. Everything was done in a rustic wood style and red and green plaid, giving it the impression of a mountain lodge. A large soft fur rug of an animal she hadn't known existed until recently was stretched out in front of the fire place. She was keenly disappointed that her room had no window.

"You are in an unused part of the Enclave. It is set aside for the anticipated Submissives that the families here might produce. The hall leads to the great hall that will be used to meet the Dominates, back the way we came are more family wings and the kitchens. The unmated Dominates are on the other side of the Enclave. This is meant to be your haven, the other Dominates are not allowed to enter this hall and know to do so will mean punishment to the full extent of the law."

He waved his wand and a fire roared to life in the massive hearth.

"Mrs. Sara Sari will be here in the morning with a wardrobe and will tailor them to your size. I have ordered one of my own house elves to look after your rooms and needs as well as monitor your health while Madam Anise and I are not around. Buben."

Paige jumped at the sudden sharp snap in his voice at the end of his explanation. A near silent pop and a small creature that came up to her hips stood before her. It wore a black fringed shawl with bright blue and red Russian flower embroideries, synched at the waist with a red scarf. Large floppy ears protruded from the side of a basketball shaped head and two large round eyes started adoringly at Shkadov.

"Mazter callz Buben." the high voice spoke with a heavier Russian accent.

"Buben, this is Paige Willow. She is your charge while I am here. You will accept orders from her as if from me unless they contradict my own."

Buben's face lit up with pure delight, "Yez Mazter!"

Buben turned his large brown eyes to her, "Miztrezz Villow needz only call Buben and I vill come."

"Thank you Buben." Paige said.

Buben's smile was blinding before he bowed and popped out of the room.

"There, that is all done I think. If you are comfortable with your new room we should go to dinner. Madam Anise was very insistent that you eat a solid serving of every food group this evening."

Paige nodded reluctantly. Food still held no appeal to her. She followed Elder Shkadov from her rooms and down the hall. As they sat down at the head table placed on a dais she looked out at the twenty or so assembled unmated dominates she decided she would need all the energy food could provide her to face tomorrow.

.oVVVo.

Paige woke up the next morning to a flower shop in her room; cards, flowers, wrapped and unwrapped gifts where everywhere. Either someone had spilled to all the Dominates that roses were her favorite flower or their imagination in gifting was about as original as her flower. After going through some of the unwrapped gifts she began to think it was the first. She had heard that that the wizarding world had their own special types of candy, and in fact had been given a chocolate frog by Elder Shkadov at one point. Yet she had baskets of Hershey's Chocolate bars, a treat she had not had since she was eight years old and her foster family had taken her to Florida. She pulled a square off of one of the bars and popped it into her mouth moaning in delight. She wondered how they managed to acquire the Muggle candy as she knew most wizards were very uncomfortable outside their wizarding world. She really wanted to meet whoever had gone through the trouble to bring her something from a very happy time in her childhood. Other candies were included and she was pleased to note that Time Out and Pinky's were included among them and wizarding ones as well.

Buben appeared with her breakfast and potion. "Miztrez must take potions now!" he chastened her.

He cleared the table of chocolates and flowers with a snap of his fingers and set the tray with her food and potions down. He stayed to watch her drink her potion and begin eating then popped away to let Sara and Shkadov that she was awake. She ate the four slices of thick bacon on her plate and pushed the eggs around the plate unable to stomach more. She drank the pumpkin juice then left her plate and went through typical morning ablutions before slipping into the clothes she had warn briefly the day before. She managed to get most of her hair into a sloppy bun. Its length meant that the ends still went past her shoulders but she didn't feel in danger of sitting on it all the time.

She was attempting to organize the chaos of gifts, and was distracted by a box of wizarding jelly beans when a hard knock she recognized as Shkadov came at her door. Before she could answer the door swung open and Shkadov came in with a small Indian woman at his heels.

She felt a flash of annoyance. Elder Shkadov's tendency to ignore her ability for independent thought was something she had noticed the better she had gotten. Madam Anise also did not consult her opinion on things as simple as what she wanted for breakfast. She noticed their little ways of treating her like a touched in the head child and it was starting to bother her.

Sara was lovely, built like Paige, busty and wide hipped but with longer legs. Her burnished skin complemented the deep black of her hair and made the bluish green of her eyes pop. She wore wizarding robes with a distinct Indian style complete with head covering. Her stomach was round with child but she gave a small bow in greeting anyways.

Paige reciprocated the greeting.

"I see the wooing has begun." Sara said with a laughing smile staring looking at the a basket of chocolate that had made its way back to the table.

Paige tugged on the wrist hem of her jumper and flushed, "I wasn't expecting this." she admitted.

Sara giggled, the sound remarkably like a bell and slightly sultry.

"You're a submissive, of course they will be plying you with presents." she said as though Paige was slow.

Elder Shkadov and Sara then began to treat her as a mannequin doll. Dressing and undressing her, adjusting clothes and not once asking her opinion. She stood silently annoyed but unable to be truly angry because of her potions. She hated the emotional numbing the potion caused and she worried it would affect her ability to choose a Dominate even though Anise had assured her it would not. The potion kept her 'calm' so her Dracken would not feel the need to take over and 'protect' her.

So she spent the morning silently fuming. The few times she had tried to interject her opinions the look passed between Sara and Shkadov had her feeling like a child and so she shut up and let them play dress up. Sara regaled Paige with her own experience with the mate meetings. Though hearing that all the dominates could barely keep their hands off of Sara even after already having two dominates when looking for her third did not help ease any of Paige's concerns about the coming day.

"How will I know how many Dominates I need?" Paige asked.

None of her reading had said anything about the actual process. She knew that multiple partners were common for Dracken, though two seemed to be the norm. One Dominate absorbed the Submissives magic to open her womb to allow for a baby to be conceived while the second grounded the magic. In cases like Harry Potter where the submissive was exceptionally power it could take two or three dominates to absorb the magic and then a grounding Dominate.

Paige wasn't exactly sure how comfortable she was with the idea. Her mother had three dominates though and if power was genetic then she could possibly look forward to three as well.

"You will need two; if you're first Dominate is strong enough to absorb the magic, and then a grounding mate. You aren't as powerful as Harry Potter or Sara to need two to absorb your magic."

Paige frowned at Shkadov's sure tone, "I thought Madam Anise said it was difficult to judge how powerful I am when most of my magic is fighting the mixed potions in my body."

"This is true but I will be selecting the strongest and most powerful Dracken's that arrive for you to look at."

Sara looked as surprised as Paige felt, "I thought it was my choice who I picked."

"It is. I am just narrowing down those who will be acceptable for your...unique situation. So we do not have to waste time on the unacceptable."

This seemed to mollify Sara, but her life was not the one being decided on. Paige felt her Dracken stir at this perceived threat on their future family. Paige took several calming breathes. Elder Shkadov was doing what he thought best for her, even if he was doing it without any thought about what she wanted.

" Shouldn't everyone have a fair chance?"

Sara snorted delicately at this, "Most of the Dracken are going to be old." she said, "twice your age at least. Not all of them deserve a chance. You wouldn't want one who is fifty years old."

Paige continued to frown, "What does age matter? We live to be one hundred and fifty at least. I want someone I can stand living the rest of my life with since it is considerably longer than I thought it would be."

Sara shook her head and gave her a look that made Paige feel two inches tall, "Once you have your first clutch of chicks it won't matter, you will love him or her regardless."

Paige really did not like being reminded of that genetic flaw in the Submissives. The fact that any Dracken could force her to love them by getting her pregnant was by the far the worst part of her situation.

"No one is going to force you to do anything," Elder Shkadov assured.

Paige was mollified by this, though Elder Shkadov's expression seemed unduly guarded. She growled in frustration, she had two personalities (that weren't even as separate as they used to be), that did not mean she was incapable of making rational choices for herself. She was not stupid either. She graduated two years ahead of her peers in public school and managed on her own for seven months, she was completely capable. None of this really mattered though as everyone treated her like she was a mentally disabled child.

She growled again but was forced to drop the topic when Shkadov asked if she had taken her potions. The last thing she needed was another dose of calming potion. She did not want to spend her first mate meeting in a numb haze.

Once her wardrobe was full of both outer and under wares, and she was dressed to Sara's satisfaction, Sara left and Paige was let off the stool. Her leg nearly buckled under her, the bones weak from the adverse reaction Skelly-grow had with the mystery potions that got into her blood stream. Paige frowned at this sign of weakness, and then sighed when Shkadov ordered her to walk around to prove it could support her.

She made three circles without a single sign of her leg buckling again.

"We will stop by the hospital wing and have Madam Anise look you over to be sure." he decided.

Paige bit back a comment. Elder Shkadov was a military man and a Dominate he would not take such subordination from anyone, much less a Submissive. So once again Paige obediently followed him from her rooms.

She was bombarded with flashing wings and the smell of Dominates as soon as they passed from the Submissive Wing. This time it was only her and Elder Shkadov, and though he kept a firm hand on her arm she was able to get a better look at the assembled Dominates. They were all trying to catch her eye but she found herself distinctly distracted by the varying sizes and hues of wings that surrounded her.

Elder Shkadov chuckled and she flushed when she realized she was ogling the other men. That did not stop her though as a Submissive's instincts would direct them to the strongest Dracken with the brightest and largest wings. It was when she started meeting eyes and they started sneaking touches that things went hairy for her. Each eye contact and every touch produced a confusing jumble of images, noises and emotions.

Until that moment her contact with others had mostly been limited to Anise and Shkadov and her gift barely reacted to them. Now though she realized that her magic was more skewed then she thought as her control of her gift was completely gone. Most commonly she saw a large stone room and a sixteen year old boy with astonishing emerald eyes and messy black hair. Sometimes he was sitting in a plush throne like chair and his hair was longer. Other times he stood with three men behind him and a belly swelling in pregnancy.

She felt tears prick her eyes as each one was accompanied by feelings of lust or crushing disappointment. By the time the hospital wing door closed behind them her head was pounding so fiercely she could not see straight.

A potion was pressed into her hand and she drank it. The headache began to ease almost instantly. She realized she was sitting on a hospital bed in the common area. Madam Anise and Elder Shkadov both stood next to her tense with worried expression.

"What happened out there?" they asked in unison.

Paige rubbed her forehead, her fingers sliding against the smooth scales on her face.

"I kept seeing everyone's past, all at once. I have never had that happen! I have always had to concentrate to use my ability to see the past."

"The level of the mystery potion in your blood has begun to dissipate." Anise offered as an explanation, "Your magic is starting to settle back into your core. Perhaps having so much of your magic floating in your body fighting the potion has left your gift more active and aware."

Paige mulled this over for a moment. It made some sense that when her life had been orderly the magic of her gift had acted as it should, but now that her personality was split and causing her magic to flare and run chaotically through her body her gift would respond as well.

She sighed. She could take advantage of this opportunity to get to know the Dominates quite intimately if their past could flash by her at a mere glance, but it felt like an invasion of privacy to do something like that. There was plenty in her own past that she would rather not have others witness.

"How can I go about meeting the Dominates if at a glance and a touch I'm bombarded by their past?" she asked.

Elder Shkadov shook his head, "It might seem odd, but we can have your will made known that touching is not allowed. The Dominates will have to respect your rules if they want to remain favored in your eyes."

Paige shook her head. That made her sound snobby as if none of them could possibly be good enough to come near here. Did she really have a choice though?

"Can't we tell them why? It isn't like my gift has to be a secret right?"

Shkadov nodded, "This is true. We will be sure to give the explanation. This could possibly be in your favor. Though you could always use your gift to pick whom you would like." he said.

She refused. Not only was it something she wouldn't want someone to do to her, but she did not want to constantly see Harry Potter and be reminded of what she lacked.

"If they want me to I will." she said, "But not without their permission. I won't invade their privacy like that." she hesitated a moment before asking, "Is Sly here?"

Elder Shkadov shook his head curtly and left to discuss something with Arapeta at the door. Paige bent forward cupping her face in her palms and resting her elbows on her knees. Shkadov had avoided any further discussion about Sly since the first time. She wanted to know how he was, if his wing had healed right, Shkadov didn't say it but she was pretty sure he was still treating Sly like a criminal.

Madame Anise approached again, "Let's see that leg now."

oVVVVo

Rumors about her had spread like wild fire through the ranks of Dominates. Ash sat at the end of a table eating his lunch without paying attention to it. Like most of the Dominates, he was hoping to catch her eye. He was surprised at how well she was recovering. Her smile and laughter as she chatted with the mated-Dominates and their wives at the table on the dais reached his ears. Every now and then her gaze would flicker to the door as if waiting for someone to enter.

She had not noticed him yet. He wanted to beat himself up for taking so long to notice her. He had worked by her side off and on for months. He had known that she was close, he wanted to groan at all the times he had treated her like a little sister. How could he possibly have been that dense?

Consciously he knew it was the magic of the suppressors that had prevented him from seeing what was before his eyes. But if he had flirted with her, maybe she wouldn't be sitting up there waiting for someone else to walk in.

He found himself distracted by the flex of her wings. The white scales shimmered in the candle light, reflecting some of the red from her hair and dress. The high necked robe emphasized her figure but managed to cover every inch of skin from neck down. She wore fingerless gloves that disappeared beneath the sweep of her sleeves. Her hair was partially swept up on top of her head in a riot of curls, with thick curls framing her face. She didn't wear any jewelry, but she didn't need to. The white scales on her face created a tiara effect across her forehead and dotted across her cheek bone.

She took a bite of fish and her tongue flicked out to capture a flaky piece left behind on her lip. He heard several groans around him and he cast a glance at the other dominates, barely suppressing a growl. Most of them he knew working in Missing Persons and Immigrations department of the Australian Ministry, on any other occasion he might even call them friends. But right then he would have loved the chance to take anyone of them down and out of the running.

He glanced back at Paige when she laughed again. He could only hope that the fact that she knew him would win him favor, and that she wouldn't hold the fact that he had lost her in the first place against him. He'd spend the rest of his life making up to her what his inaction had put her through.

He noticed the frown on her face when she looked at Elder Shkadov, something he said had upset her. He gripped his fork tighter against the urge to rush to her side. The rules of engagement were clear though and he would not do anything risk getting kicked out. Not when she was so close.

oVVVo

Elder Shkadov made the announcement of the new no touching rule after lunch and told the assembled Dominates exactly what they would be in for if they did. Some looked interested, others disturbed at the idea that their Submissive could see into their past.

Paige stood next to Elder Shkadov on a dais in the Great Hall. She stared out at the assembled Dracken's, careful not to meet their eyes. There were so many! Despite the potion, panic made her heart pound painfully in her throat.

She was a half-crazy, ignorant, scared Submissive. Would her fertility really matter if all the Dominates thought she looked like she lost a fight with a machete? And what if none of them were powerful enough to handle her while her magic and Dracken settled? What if she lost it again and killed her mate?

How could they possibly ask her to do this? How could she ask anyone to possibly sign their death warrant by being with her?

She took a deep breath and held it. Elder Shkadov's words in the infirmary coming back to her.

"Your Dracken has settled significantly, but too much might set it off and make it harder for you to fully become one again."

That was why Elder Shkadov was pushing her to do this. He insisted that the sooner she mated the sooner everything would stabilize and she could begin her wizarding education. Some would still be in England, testing their luck with Harry Potter.

She released her breath in a hiss and her stomach twisted unpleasantly. Flawless, beautiful, powerful, perfect Potter. Part of her wanted to meet him. Their discovery of their inheritance being somewhat similar, but another part of her hated him for being _so_ perfect. She could never hope to compare to the Savior of the wizarding world, especially now.

She was trembling again, frustrated tears burned her eyes. It wasn't fair! It was all so much to handle! She just wanted to go back to being Paige!

Her eyes locked with a Dominate that hung back in the shadows. His chocolate brown eyes watched her intently. She did not notice the strong line of his jaw, the high Slavic cheek bones, his defined hooked nose, or the windswept dark hair that hung long over his ears and curled along the collar of his robes. She did notice the blue and silver scales on his face. She inhaled deeply, but so far away his scent was lost in the medley of other scents. She noticed that whatever he was thinking took hold of her gift and led her not into another image of Harry Potter but to a flower filled courtyard surrounded by vine ladened walls. A rot-iron gazebo was tucked into a pocket of rich green leafy plants with bell like flowers in a rainbow of colors. At a table set with tea and cakes a he sat with his mother and father. Their mouths moved and his mother laughed, but no sound reached Paige.

Then he blinked and the image was gone. She shifted her gaze down to the half tilt of this mouth. He knew! Her gaze flew back to his and there was a smile in his eyes. He had done it on purpose! She wanted to talk to him, wanted to know his name and how he had known he could direct her gift like that.

Her thoughts must have been on her face because his lips tipped upwards a little more. She felt herself smile in response.

Elder Shkadov turned to her then; having finished telling the assembled Dracken exactly what 'she' was looking for in her mate. The younger Dracken's looked very upset and she frowned when she realized her Dracken was none too happy either.

_Safety first_, she reminded herself, _they could be the best looking Dracken here but they aren't going to be my mate unless they can keep me safe._

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><p><strong>AN: Okay so I'm moving into the finals week for this semester so I cannot guarantee updates for the next two weeks or three weeks. I have the two weeks around Christmas completely free so I'll try to pump out chapters then :) Chapter Seven was finished but I don't like it so I'm re-writing it. **

**Thanks so much for the reviews! I love them they are fuel for my writing when my drive gets low.  
><strong>


	7. Over The Edge

**Disclaimer: The usual :)**

**Jensen Kyron is also a OC of Starlight Massacre**

**Thanks to everyone who has me on Alert! **

**Thank You all who reviewed and I hope you enjoy this update!**

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><p><strong>Chapter Seven- Over the Edge<strong>

**"Who** do you want to begin with?"

The question was rhetorical. She had a list in her pocket of all the Dominates Shkadov thought acceptable for her. He knew who was first on the list, so why was he asking her?

Her eyes flickered to the shadow corner with frustration and regret.

"Dallas Corinth." she said; the first on the list but not really the Dracken she wanted to talk to.

Dallas was short by Dominate standards which meant he still stood a good six or more inches taller than her. He had thick ropey muscle that pulled his shirt taunt when he moved. His skin was covered in cerulean blue scales and his wing span was approaching twenty feet. Her first impression of him was a muscular cowboy. Elder Shkadov directed them to an ante-chamber. Two plush arm chairs in dark brown leather and a brown and tan velvet settee were situated around the hearth that dominated the main wall. The walls were draped in pale blue curtains and a side table was ladened with treats near the door.

Paige settled onto the settee at the insistence of Elder Shkadov. Dallas perched on the edge of an armchair opposite her, which made Shkadov frown and make a note on a parchment that hovered next to him.

Dallas stared at her with intent brown eyes. This is going to be a long day, she thought to herself casting a glance at the door over Dallas' shoulder. After Dallas (who stared at her for five solid minutes without saying a single word), came the gigantic figure of twenty seven year old Nerang Zuca. He was a couple inches taller than Elder Shkadov and had to duck to walk through the door. He wore open wizard robes decorated with the dot designs, associated with the aborigine, over a bright red shirt and black trousers. He had startling teal eyes that stood out from his dark brown skin with yellow and red scales. His face was round and his mouth cast in a wide friendly grin.

Paige new she was gawking, but the man was massive. His hands looked bigger than her face and he was built like a wrestler all bulging rippling muscles. He strode quickly over to her and she barely got a squeak of surprise out before she was lifted from her seat and crushed against his chest in a tight, but not painful, embrace. His heart pounded against hers and she remained perfectly still, her arms trapped at her side and her feet hanging uselessly in the air.

As the fear from his sudden action faded she became aware of his scent, hot desert and worn leather. Without meaning to she turned her nose into his neck and inhaled deeply. His grip tightened a little before he released her, setting her back on the settee and settling down beside her. She sat a little dazed.

He took up the rest of the space on the settee his thigh pressed against hers. Even sitting she had to crane her neck back to meet his gaze. There was something...familiar about him.

She bit her lip, unsure if she should say anything or not.

"You saved my life in the warehouse." he said, "And I never go to thank you properly. I caught you when you collapsed at the end of the battle. I doubt you remember you were so..."

Shkadov cleared his throat with a warning. Paige shot him a displeased look but he was staring at Nerang. Nerang cleared his throat, clearly intimidated by the Elder and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, anyway. I am really glad to see you well again."

Paige frowned trying to remember what Nerang had mentioned. Most of the battle was a blur, like a bad dream vaguely remembered. She pushed the thought aside and focused back on Nerang who had taken her hand.

Nerang, it turned out, was from a well known pureblood family in Australia with a lot of Dracken's in their line. Neither one of his parents were Dracken but his grandparents were and a cousin who was mated and also in D.R.A.C.O. He was the oldest of four siblings and the only male and so heir to the Zuca name and fortune.

Paige mentioned her own inheritance. Nerang immediately became attentive at her voice. She hesitated surprised to level of focus suddenly directed at her.

"What kind of inheritance?" he queried, clearly wanting her to continue.

"Well...a house mostly, in Morere. I have a trust; it's enough to get by on month to month. I started working at the Hot Springs to fill time and give me a little more spending money. There isn't much to do in Morere besides the Hot Spring, but it's the only place that I've had that's mine and... I like the quiet." Paige glanced down at her hands a wave of homesickness making her throat tight and her chest hurt. She wanted her peaceful life back, tucked away in the woods without so many people around. She wanted it so much it hurt.

Strong arms encircled her, pulling her into a lap and against his big warm chest. She realized thick silent tears had leaked from her eyes. She wanted to go home.

Despite the small bout of tears, her time with Nerang was the best all day. Following him, none of the other Dominates seemed to care if she spoke or not. Some seemed to prefer that she keep completely silent and let them do all the talking. They were all generally polite, contained and a few even sat beside her instead of across from her.

Dinner time came and went and her food remained untouched on the coffee table in front of her while she watched Shkadov discuss Quidditch scores and who they thought would do well in the upcoming season with thirty three year old Jensen Kyron; who liked outdoor activities and was clearly disappointed that she was incapable of such until her leg fully healed (if it fully healed).

She frowned slightly, watching the two men speak but not really seeing or hearing them. She walked without a limp but Madame Anise said her leg would be prone to weakness as long as that potion remained imbedded in the muscle and bone. She realized she did not really know the limits of her leg as the most she ever walked was five minutes from wing to wing.

Anise seemed to think the potion would eventually disappear on its own, had in fact already noted a decrease in the tissue deposits. Paige hadn't ever been an active person, she liked fixing appliances and studying how things worked, but knowing she had limitations still irked her. She thought of the river behind her home and wondered if she'd be able to swim come the summer time.

Paige blinked at the sound of a door closing. She looked around and realized that she had been left alone. There was no clock on the wall so she had no idea what time it was. She could hear the murmur of voices through the door and realized Shkadov was talking to the guard unit outside.

She stood and stretched, yawning hugely. She walked over to the fire place, which put her closer to the door. She hadn't planned on eavesdropping but she heard her name and she couldn't help it.

"...house in Morere. Find Ash I want to know all about it, who gave it to her, how long it has been there and what kind if any, wards it has." Shkadov said.

Paige frowned, offended at the idea that anyone would be wondering around her home without her permission and without her present. A low murmur followed, too indistinct for her to pick up on what was said. She strained to listen, but instead found her mind's eye thrust back into another conversation weeks ago while she was till recovering in the Hospital Wing.

_Elder Shkadov stood in Madame Anise office his hands clasped behind his back as he stared down at the angry looking nurse. Anise had her hands braced on her desk, papers and potion vials scattered across it._

_"She would heal just as quickly in a familiar environment where she feels safe. I have plenty of students I can send to provide in home care while she recuperates. She needs to feel safe before her Dracken will even consider a full merge again." _

_"Having a Dominate will make her feel safe. She will be safer here with a Dominate and my men to watch over her."_

_Anise face grew slightly redder, "But you risk her life and the life of the other Dominates if her Dracken refuses to cooperate with the mate meeting."_

_Shkadov sniffed, "She's a Submissive. Her purpose is to be mated, her Dracken knows that. Our job is to simply make her feel safe here, as long as the human part feels safe the Dracken will cooperate, and the human is very weak. She will cling to any illusion of safety."_

_Anise looked outraged, "You can't manipulate her feelings like that. You can't control her either."_

_Shkadov shook his head, "I am an Elder, combined with the right ingredients she will be very compliant to my commands and she will be mated before the month is out."_

oVVVo

Paige opened her eyes feeling groggy and confused. She blinked at the familiar sight of her suites ceiling and the familiar slide of her soft cotton night gown on her skin. The fireplace glowed softly from the remains of a fire. She wasn't sure what time it was though it felt late. She sat up and glanced around her room. Her morning potions were set on the table so she obviously wasn't expected to be awake until morning.

She wasn't tired though and doubted she could fall back asleep, so she threw back her covers and stood. A loud _Pop_ behind her sent her scrambling forward, her bad leg buckled and she ended up landing painfully on her hands and knees. She stood quickly and turned around. Noticed the stool by her bed for the first time and realized the house elf must have been watching her while she slept.

Mentally she swore. Knowing Shkadov or Anise would be there soon to give her something to "help her sleep", she slipped out of her room and hurried down the hall at a clipped pace, ignoring the way her leg didn't quite feel steady under her.

She did not want to see the nurse or the Elder right now, nor did she want to go to sleep. Her mind felt fairly clear; clearer than it had been since being abducted. She desperately tried to remember what had happened between the mate meeting and now. She mentally raged at her Dracken for keeping things from her.

She realized the potions she had been taking kept her mind foggy. While they strengthened her body she realized her mental ability to _notice_ what was really going on around her was dulled. Paige was brilliant, she knew she was. The fact that she had been acting like a docile, if emotional, little doll for Elder Shkadov pissed her off.

She was an orphan. The first lesson she learned was never trust adults, never bow to authority for authorities sake, and no one cared that you felt. She growled, unaware that her wings had unsheathed and flexed in agitation, or that her eyes had darkened to a flinty grey in response to her anger.

Unfortunately she wasn't positive that the effects of the potions was deliberate or, like with muggle medicines, just the way the body responded. She was inclined to believe it was deliberate, because if they truly cared about her well being then they wouldn't make her choose a mate with her mind so affected.

So, lost in thought, Paige hadn't paid any attention to where she was going. She knew Shkadov would find her eventually but she wanted as much time to think to herself walking the halls provided. She suddenly found herself in a darkened, unused hallway. A sharp cold breeze cut straight through her gown eliciting goose bumps and shivers. She turned to head back the other way when she realized what cold air meant.

Swinging back around, she went deeper down the darkened corridor. The chill in the air increased even as the sulfuric smell of the enclave was replaced with the sharp scent of rain. The corridor turned sharply before opening up into natural cave. A ledge extended out past mouth of the cave entrance. Paige stared in delight at the sheet of pouring rain. She was high above the three tops and could just make out their buffeted shadows. The rain came down mixed with snow and she ignored the cold that made her teeth chatter and her body shake. Run off fell from the cave mouth like a waterfall and she stuck out her hand.

The rain was like shards of ice against her skin but she grinned anyways. She was looking outside, fresh air, trees, things she hadn't seen in two months. She wanted to go out there and soak it up, but she remembered that Drackens were very susceptible to cold and the last thing she needed now was a cold or worse. So with a reluctant sigh she turned to leave and face the her angry caretakers.

Someone stood behind her, wand tip pointing at her and glowing an eerie green. Her scream of fright got stuck in her throat and it came out as a strangled moan of fear. They were covered from head to foot in thick dark wool, but the glow from the wand lit the under half of his face and his manic grin.

His smell hit her over the sharp tang of rain and wet rock. A smell she would never forget and his British accent crawled over skin and down her spin.

"So the submissive has finally slipped her leash. With as much trouble as you gave me I knew it was but a matter of time."

He took a step closer and she stumbled back, through the sheet of water and into the driving rain. She gasped in shock as ice and rain soaked her within seconds. She was terrified; his mere presence sent her back into that little cell all by herself with only Sly's voice to keep her sane, and into that room where all she had known was pain.

Her fear turned to anger and with a cry she threw herself at him. He caught her by the throat, using her momentum to swing her around and throw her to the ground. She slid across the water slick ledge. He was on her before she could stand, lifting her up by her throat again and dangling her over the edge.

"I hear you're still weak and frail from my potions." his voice was maliciously satisfied, "I am glad they were useful for something, you ruined thousands of galleons worth of potions and now my stock is in the hands of that blasted D.R.A.C.O. You have cost me far more money than you are worth little girl. I will take great pleasure in killing you."

Paige clawed at his hands, but he hardly seemed to notice the gauging of her claws in his flesh and scales. Spots were forming in front of her eyes from lack of air and her body was slowly going numb.

"Just as I took pleasure in killing the other one."

Paige's world narrowed. The pounding of rain on her flush and the suffocating hold on her throat meant nothing to her as her whole being seemed to focus on his words.

"Sly." she choked out.

The mirthless grin stretched the man's face, "Dead, I personally pulled every single scale from his wing. He was supposed to impregnate you, my potions would have made sure it only took once, he was useless to me. You though, "He pulled her close, his hot alcoholic breath wafted over her frozen skin," You could still be useful. Show me the future; show me how to kill the Potter brat."

She knew he didn't mean it literally. He wanted Potter to suffer, the way he suffered. To live with the loss of what he held most dear. To die a little more every day knowing that all he loved was gone, would never come back. And worse, she could see it. She could see all the possible ways he could hurt the Boy-Who-Lived, every one of his friends and family that she couldn't name, the children he would have and the exact moment that would devastate the boy the most.

Paige's Dracken revolted, she roared with fury at the image of what this beast would do to the children; even if they weren't hers she'd never let him close. She raked her claws across his face and as the spell he had ready left his wand she dived off the side of the mountain.

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><p><strong>AN: Alright so I haven't done anything but spell checked this chapter so I apologize for any errors**. **The next chapter is half done and I'll try to have that out by the end of the week. I have this week and next week off so I'm hoping to get some chapters cranked out so I can stay a week ahead of updates for the beginning of next semester. **

**I would really like to know what you guys think so feel free to leave a review :)**

**We'll be seeing Viktor Krum in the next chapter ;) Until then...**

**Ta!**

**Juniper**

**A/N 2: Did some editing so replaced the chapter :)  
><strong>


	8. Viktor

**Disclaimer: The Usual**

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><p><strong>Chapter Eight- Viktor<strong>

Viktor Krum hung back in the shadows of the meeting hall and watched his uncle bark orders to those present. His uncle's gaze would flicker back to his unconcerned slouch and the familiar twitch would tick on his forehead. Viktor could count on one hand the words that had passed between the two of them since he had opted for a career in Quidditch rather than as his uncle pet guard dog. Viktor refused to let the alarm he felt show even when internally he was pacing and growling at this turn of events. His obvious calm only served to irritate the Elder on the stage further and his uncle turned back to his men. Viktor took the opportunity to slip out of the hall unnoticed.

Half an hour ago the wards on the Enclave registered massive magical interference. They began to flicker in timed laps series. Fifteen minutes ago Madame Anise had announced Paige Willow gone from her rooms. A quick search and series of standard location spells and it was as though she had simply dropped off the face of the earth...again. Now his uncle had his men gathered for a more thorough and wider search. Viktor had waited until D.R.A.C.O was focus on his uncle before beginning a search of his own.

At nineteen Viktor had more control over his instincts than most of the men his uncle had in D.R.A.C.O. He was also exceptionally perceptive and observant; talents he was born with and his uncle had trained him in since he was old enough to speak.

Sly Osorio had been one of Viktor's better friends, he'd trained with the older man and the easy going, obnoxiously happy Spaniard had balanced Viktor's more somber and quiet personality. He had also made it possible for Viktor to break from his Uncle and away from D.R.A.C.O to pursue his sports career and he would forever feel indebted to his friend. It was that debt that had kept him at this farce of a mate meeting. He would always accommodate his Dracken's desire to attend a mate meeting, it was easier to work with his instincts rather than deny them, but he rarely stayed longer than hour. Though he desired a mate,(it was genetically ingrained in him to find one and procreate), he easily found good enough reason why a submissive would not suite and so left quickly. Potter's first meetings managed to find him at a match and by the time the game was over and he received the missive things had already been settled. He was honestly happy for the boy, but he had not attended any of the others, two public figures mated would not help keep their secret. While the media didn't hound the two of them there was enough of a spotlight to make the risk not worth it. Not that men had ever been Viktor's type; he very much liked the soft, round curves of women. The fact that his Dracken would have loved the boy no matter what offended every ounce of Viktor's hard won control. So he stayed away and Potter never noticed the difference.

Here though, Viktor was forced to stay. Not only had the presence of his uncle told him the man was up to something, but Sly had made an effort to send a file on the submissive to him long before the call went out. The file had contained some very personal notes from Sly as well as a letter addressed to Viktor asking him to watch out for her until Sly was well enough too. That was the last he had received from his friend because Sly had disappeared from his hospital room three weeks ago.

Viktor made his way to one of the many cave like entrances to the Enclave. He looked out at the cold April rain, flexing his large 25 foot wings as he cast several strong warming charms on his clothes and a water repelling bubble around him before stepping out into the New Zealand winter. He knew the Enclave as well as he knew his home in Bulgaria, specifically the Submissive and Dominate wings. If she had disappeared than someone had intentionally hidden her tracks, since she couldn't do magic yet without nearly killing herself it was not a deliberate escape on her part.

There was only a five minute span where she was alone; she was a vicious fighter when cornered and her room had not shown any signs of a struggle according to the elf and the nurse. Something had possessed her to leave her room voluntarily and quickly. Since Anise had not run into her on her way to or from the room that only left one direction for the Submissive to go and the most likely route would have led her to the landing roof at the top of the Enclave.

Viktor's wings beat powerfully as he easily sliced through the wind and rain, gaining altitude faster than any broom he'd ever ridden. The quickest and easiest route was external, internally he risked being accused of being in the Submissive wing and his uncle would use any excuse to expel him from the meeting. The tree and grass covered slopes quickly gave way to snow covered rock. Victor paused mid flight narrowing his eyes as he saw something red and white appear in the darkness, hurtling towards him in a free fall. Viktor swore viciously in Russian before quickly angling his flight to intercept the submissive.

He caught her by her gown as she tumbled past. He heard the distinct sound o fabric ripping and he quickly pulled her into his embrace. She hissed and struggled, her nails trying to find purchase on his skin. He easily captured her flailing limbs hand held them at her side. Her clothes quickly soaked the front of his robes and he grunted in pain when her heel managed a solid hit on his knee.

He bit down on her exposed shoulder, not hard enough to break skin but enough to cause her to still. He growled in warning when she hissed at him again. He gently pushed at her with his Dominate power, not to scare her but to establish his control over the situation.

She growled in response, unhappy but she remained still in his hold. He took that as her acceptance, and he focused on finding a safe, dry spot to land. They were quite far from the mountain, he realized in dismay. They hovered over the forest that surrounded the mountains so they would have to settle for what over that would provide for the time being.

He swiftly descended through the tree tops and to the wet leafy ground below. He stood holding her against him momentarily undecided. Release her and he risked her attacking him, or attempting escape, but she was so cold and wet he felt like he was holding a giant violently shivering icicle.

Hesitantly he pulled his wand from his wrist holster, tightening his hold on her with his other arm and cast drying and warming charms in quick succession. As predicted the second the spells left his wand she began to struggle again.

She broke his one armed hold and stumbled forward. He watched her leg collapse under her and his Seeker reflexes combined with Dracken instinct had him closing the distance and caught her around the waist before she hit the ground. He had every intention of helping her up but she took a swing him with her foot and his attempt to avoid it had them both tumbling to forest floor.

She growled in warning rolling away from and coming up to her hands and knees. Viktor remained low to the ground mirroring her position, the instincts to conquer and subdue were burning through his veins and he knew how this was going to end. He'd never faced a resistant Submissive before and every instinct in him screamed to dominate, subdue and claim.

With years of training he was able to temper the urge, but just barely. She watched him with feral eyes, her nostrils flaring and chest heaving with panting breathes. She barred her teeth at him threateningly. He stared her directly in his eyes, pushing calming thoughts to the fore of his mind and exuding calming pheromones, hoping to trigger her gift.

It worked, her eyes glazed and her shoulders began to relax as she was caught up in something from his past. He lunged, the moment of unawareness all he needed. He tackled her to the ground, capturing her arms above her head and using his legs to pin her hips. She struggled and bucked against him.

He growled dangerously at her. With a whimper she stilled beneath him turning her face away and squeezing her eyes shut. Tears leaked from her eyes and before he knew what he was doing he gently licked the salty water from cheek.

She gasped in surprise, grey eyes locking with his. The feral light in them dimmed a little, the grey of her eyes lightened and she looked at him...considering. His Dracken growled in approval. It was like adding a the wrong ingredient to a potion, the explosion was imminent but there was no spell he could use to protect himself from the fall out.

He bent his head nuzzling the skin of her cheek, before flicking his tongue across the smooth scales there. She tasted like mangos and rain. He trailed his nose down her cheek, along her jaw and to her ear. She tilted her head presenting the long column of her neck to him. He inhaled deeply, attempting to reign in his control, to stop his actions but then her hips shifted, pressed intimately against him and his control crumbled.

oVVVo

Paige felt dizzy and confused a combination of the absence of adrenaline, fear and the scent of the Dracken above her. She had recognized him the moment she'd been able to get a good look at him, the Dracken from the morning who had directed her gift to specific memories. He had done it again, distracting her at the moment she had meant to get away.

Then he had tackled her and his scent washed over her like a warm blanket. He was handsome in a dark brooding way, much stronger than he looked but so gentle. She moaned as his tongue found the pulse on her neck. He was slow and steady, not rough or greedy in his attentions, like he had all the time in the world to taste and learn every inch of her. He nipped the junction of her neck and shoulder and a high whine came from her throat. She felt embarrassment flood her body with heat, was she really making those sounds? He chuckled the sound going strait the pool of heat developing in abdomen. Merlin, what was she doing? He released her hands threading the now free hand into her hair and tilting her head even more for better access. For moment she had every intention of shoving him off her but then something warm seemed to slide into her heart, wrap around it and fill her with a sense of security she hadn't ever felt before. It was like stepping into her house the first time, realizing it was _hers_ and no one would take it away only so much more powerful. Like the first time in the hospital wing when she pulled out her Dracken features, something slid into place that was disjointed before.

Hands that had originally intended to shove him away wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer. _Hers._

_Finally_, her heart whispered.

oVVVo

The haze of desire began to fade and Viktor's normal control was quick to reassert itself. On hand was wrapped around the cold flesh of her thigh a raised scar notably different than the smooth skin that surrounded it. His other hand was cupped the side of her face. It burned against his palm. He drew back, pulling his other hand up to her face. Her eyes were glazed, not with passion or vision but illness.

Viktor began calling himself every unpleasant name he could think of in every language he knew. He pulled her off the cold wet ground and into his arms swiftly. Her teeth began chattering almost instantly. He renewed the warming charm, and despite his drying charms their clothes remained slightly damp and though no rain penetrated his repelling spell the wind cut through it unheeded.

"Damn idiot" he growled aloud to himself, "You're making a fine start to this mate ship."

"W-what, l-la-anguage is-s that?"

Viktor blinked, surprised she was still coherent, " Bulgarian." He said that sharper than he meant too and so gentled his next words, "I must get you to hospital ving, " God he hated English, made him sound like a moron, " I vill apparate us, it vill be unpleasant, but is fastest vay."

She grimaced but nodded, her teeth chattering so hard it had to hurt. Viktor held her closer then turned on the spot, disappearing from the woods with a loud _crack_.

oVVVo

The air in the hospital wing was unbearable hot. Paige gave a shout as her previously numb skin began to heat up, fast. It _hurt_. She clutched the fabric of her mate's shirt and buried her face in it, gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut. There was shouting and growling around her, concern and anger warred for dominate emotions in the room, but she focused on not screaming at the worse then pins and needles feeling of her skin thawing.

Waves of dizziness washed over her and she felt very glad for her mates hold. Spells settled on her skin and the pain receded and she could think again. Viktor sat her down on the edge of a hospital bed. His face was dark with fury, wings out and slightly curled around her. One hand gripped his wand while the other stayed protectively around her waist. She placed a hand on his arm, gripping the sleeve of his robes and took in the chaos around her.

Elder Shkadov stood face contorted in absolute rage, his D.R.A.C.O men fanned out behind him looking ready to pounce on command. Shkadov and her mate shouted back and forth in what she thought was Russian. Madame Anise stood next to her lips pressed in a white line and her eyes shooting fire at the two men who kept her from getting nearer to Paige.

Paige was quick to realize the problem and she was intent to put Shkadov in his place but coughing seized her throat and she doubled over from the force of it. The shouting stopped immediately, but Paige could hardly get a breath in between coughs.

"Viktor, let me help her!" Anise said, "She's going into the first stages on pneumonia. The best thing for you to do for your mate is let me see to her."

"She's not his yet." Shkadov growled. Viktor snarled in response, but it was nothing compared to the roar of rage that came from Paige.

"He is _mine. _If you come near us I swear I will break every bone in your body, twice." Coughing took over again and her mate, Viktor pulled her up right and helped her drink a potion.

Shkadov said something in Russian, his tone unmistakably mocking. Viktor growled in response, his control on his rage strained his response; his tone was icy and spoken with a calm not at all reflected in his eyes and the tension in his body. He looked poised and ready for a fight.

Anise snapped at the Elder to leave, "You are no longer needed as her chaperone for this meeting Elder, you have no business in her sick room."

The Elder grunted, his face relaxing into a softness that was not reflected in his eyes, "Congratulations Nephew on your mate, I hope you are prepared for what you are getting into with this one." He said it in English and his meaning was quite clear and like a bucket of ice on Paige's anger.

She looked at Viktor, her mate and horror descended on her. Oh Merlin what had she done? Shkadov gave a curt nod to them all then marched out followed by his men. Anise was asking her questions Paige couldn't answer. Would she hurt her mate? Was she unstable enough that he was in danger? He wasn't on Shkadov's list for a reason, right?

Her lungs began to constrict, her grip on his sleeve hard enough that her nails pierced through the cloth and dug into her own palm. She was dizzy with the need for air but for the life of her she couldn't remember how to do it right.

Oh god, oh god, she prayed, this can't be happening. She couldn't be mated to a virtual stranger, she couldn't be asking him to take on her crazy life.

Air rushed into her lungs and her eyes fluttered open. She hadn't even been aware she had closed them.

"In." Viktor hovered over her. _In_? she thought in confusion. He pressed his open mouth to hers and blew in.

"In." he repeated his demand. In, she thought taking in a lungful of air.

"Out." he commanded. She exhaled.

"In." she obeyed.

"Out." she exhaled, then inhaled on her own.

"There we go." he praised. She felt inordinately pleased by this.

"I'm not about to let you go just yet котёнок." he said cupping her cheek and pressing a light kiss to her lips. She smiled, that was good because she didn't want to go. She put her hand over his and gave it a squeeze.

"Sorry." she murmured.

His thumb caressed her lips, "Hush. Ve have much to learn of each other, but I vont except apologies for this. I know vhat ve face vhile you get better. Our lives are now twined котёнок. I vont only for you get better and not to vorry. Madame Anise says you must sleep. I vill stay right here and be here vhen you vake."

He turned his hand and threaded his long thin fingers through hers. She turned on her side so she could face him better as he settled into a raised chaired next to her bed.

She tried to focus on his features, to memorize him. Apart of her was afraid he would disappear. He looked to be around nineteen or twenty years old. He wasn't classically handsome, tall and willowy. His dark black hair was longish, curling around his ears and still disheveled from the wind and rain. She could see the effects of excessive sunlight on his skin and she idly wondered what her mate did for a living. His blue and silver scales stood out against the tanned skin, they cut three sharp diagonal lines across his face and banded around his neck. Thick black eyebrows arched over chocolate colored eyes with a thin ring of gold around the pupil. The curve of his nose and the sharp curve of his jaw line gave his face an intimidating if surely appearance.

"Go to sleep котёнок." he admonished slightly, extending his index finger from where their hands rested near her face and trailed it down the bridge of her nose. She wrinkled her nose at the slightly ticklish feeling but felt her eyes drift close on their own accord. She tightened her grip on his hand briefly before sleep dragged her into darkness.

o

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><p><strong>AN:** Yay!...Did that seem to rushed to you? I tried to make it all make sense. You have nooo idea how impatient Viktor has been about getting into this fan-fiction...I have written their first meeting probably half a dozen times in about as many different ways as well and finally settled on this...hope you like :)

**Reviewers!** I think the last chapter garnered more responses than any of the others and I will say I loved each and every one of the reviews!

**(): You're welcome! Happy Christmas!**

**Psyco101: Haha and the cliff hanging cliff hanger wasn't really intentional...hope you enjoyed this chapter too :)**

**R. Jeanette: You're review gave me all kinds of warm fuzzies so Thank You!**

**NinjaHarryPotter4life: If you don't like the Elder then I'm writing him right :D I hope you liked this chapter :)**

**Hakoiri: You can join my Sly fanclub, i really liked him too and sadly I originally had a scene where he did show up at the mate meeting...briefly...but the Elder's character started to develop and things kinda turned the worse for Sly...I'm kinda sad he's gone too but its all part of a plot that still developing...I hope Viktor does a good job of standing in for Sly :) Thank you for the review**

**Thank you everyone who hss read to here and has reviewed and/or favorited/alerted me or this story. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Happy Christmas :D**

**Ta!**

**Juniper**87

**A/N 2: Little bit of editing 12/29/11**


	9. Beginnings

**A/N: Standard Disclaimer **

**Thanks guys for all the reviews and favorites :D **

**I wont be updating again for the rest of the year, so enjoy this update and Happy New Year! See you in 2012.**

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><p><strong>Chapter Nine- Beginnings<br>**

Paige sneezed for what felt like the thousandth time since waking up. Despite the potions her body temperature was still to low for a healthy Dracken, and her chest felt as though someone was sitting on it. She sat on the hospital bed, a book propped up on her knees and held steady with one hand, while the other remained clasped in the warm cocoon of her mates. Viktor sat beside her bed writing out letters to his family. His thumb was making lazy circles on the back of her hand and she found the motion very distracting.

Actually, she found _him _very distracting. They had been sitting in silence for nearly an hour and she had read the page half a dozen times without really paying attention to the words. She was at a loss on what to do now. Like everything else that had happened since February, she was in the middle of uncharted territory. She'd never had boyfriend, she couldn't even remember a time where she had even had a crush on someone, and now she was, for all intents and purposes, married to a complete stranger. What kind of Submissive did he expect her to be? What kind of Dominate would he be? Her face warmed as the memory of what had happened in the forest flashed through her mind. She stared hard at her book shoving the thoughts away. She had acted like a...like...she wasn't even sure how to describe her feelings. It was new, and scary, and wonderful, and something she wanted to do again.

She stared unseeingly at the words from her Transfiguration book. Viktor seemed so calm and collected next to her, while she felt like she would fly apart in every direction at the slightest provocation. The absence of the scratch of his quill on paper drew her attention.

"You have home here?" he asked, his voice slid over her skin, causing heat to stir low in her stomach. She flushed slightly at her reaction.

"No...I mean, yes, but it's in Morere, on the other side of the island."

He grunted in acknowledgment and scratched a few more lines on the parchment. "You vould not know if it is varded?"

Paige shook her head though, "I know that no one can find it though."

His eyes pinned her in the spot ,watching her intently. She swallowed nervously, "I mean...anyone I asked about it didn't seem to know it existed and then Ami tried to bring me something I had left at work once and she couldn't find the place. The streets a little difficult to find, but my house is at the very end of it so kind of hard to miss."

He hmmed and went back to writing. Paige exhaled and the tension between her shoulders relaxed a little. She flipped the page of her text book just to look like she was reading.

"Go back."

She started a little, and looked at Viktor in confusion.

"You did not read the page. Your have much to learn, much to catch up on. You must read it."

She frowned at him. She wasn't used to anyone telling her how to do her school work.

"I got it." she replied. Staring at the current page and not flipping back.

"Do you?"

The book was snatched out of her hand before she could blink.

"Hey!" she reached for her book but her mate held it out of her reach and flipped the page.

"Vhat are the four branches of Transfiguration?"

She gapped at him, "You're joking."

He didn't look like he was joking, one eyebrow lifted and his mouth was turned down.

"Unbelievable." she said.

"If you do not know it-"

"In order of difficulty: Transformation, Vanishment, Conjuration and Untransfiguration. That page, the one you wanted me to read -again- discusses transformation, specifically the snail to teapot spell. I would happily wave my wand three times and perform it, but I am still on magic restriction, so you'll have to wait until I get a wand and medical clearance. The page I was on was a diagram for the spell. Anything else...Professor?"

The last was said with heavy sarcasm.

Viktor snapped the book closed sharply as he stood. He leaned close until his nose touched the tip of hers, his voice low with conviction.

"Do not think I vill sit by a vatch you neglect your studies. You vill be a powerful vitch, of this I am sure. You vill need focus and control, least you put our family in danger. Magic is nothing to joke about, not vhen you have so little control of it."

"I have control." Paige denied indignantly.

"Veally? Then vhy did your vater glass break?"

Paige's head whipped around. A half eaten bowl of chicken broth sat on the bed side table near her elbow. Steam still rose from the soup inside the charmed bowl. Two empty vials of potion sat next to it along with her customary mint flavored water. There was indeed a crack spidering down from the rim of her water glass. Viktor dropped her transfigurations book in her lap then sat back down.

Paige had every intention of ignoring him and pretending he wasn't there. She used both hands to open the book and very deliberately began reading about turning a snail into a teapot. If only it would teach her how to turn her mate into one...

oVVVo

Viktor would never admit it, but he found his mates snarky reply amusing and a relief. He had been afraid that between the Hoarders and his uncle the Paige he had read about in Sly's notes would be gone for good. He knew she was brilliant, even knew she did not need him to hound her about studying. However he had been curious about her reported 'photographic' memory and wondered if her amnesic tendencies had affected it, he had also wanted her to know he was aware of her and he cared about her education.

So he let her sulk like the sixteen year old she should have been allowed to be and he finished his letter to his parents. He wasn't sure if his mate knew he was a Quidditch Seeker for the Bulgarian National Team so he couldn't be sure how she would react to his decision to take a year of hiatus. His mother was about to contract a rare and 'fatal' disease. Their family doctor was also a Dracken and a celebrated physician. It was one of the "outs" in Viktor's contract and though he never expected to exploit it he could not think of another alternative. He couldn't be traveling around the world and be gone five days out of seven when his mate was sick and vulnerable.

Unfortunately, all his instincts told him she was still in danger. She had been helped off that landing cliff, of that he was certain. She had too much life in her eyes for it to have been a suicide attempt like his uncle had dare to suggest. So close to the wards being tampered with...no someone had gotten far too close to his mate with the intent to harm and he would not let that happen again.

What needed to be decided was where they would be staying. He wanted a good look at the wards on her home. It sounded like she had a standard unplottable ward, which meant he probably would not be able to find it without her with him. Yet he wasn't inclined to take her into an area he wasn't absolutely sure was safe.

The Hoarders had found her at her Muggle job and if any had gotten away they could still be watching the area. Viktor frowned, but his place was a bachelor pad and hardly suitable for the two of them especially when his team mates had a habit of crashing there without notice. He grimaced at the thought of his ancestral home in the heart of wizarding Sofia. He looked at his mate considering. She was sixteen and female...didn't that automatically mean shopping and parties?

A flash of jealously tightened his gut, he did not want to share his mate with the world, not yet. His eyes were drawn to her hand as it rose to tuck her hair behind her ear. His eyes traced the shell of her ear; he noticed that her ears were not pierced. The line of her jaw was soft and bisected near her ear by a scar that cut down and stopped just before reaching the artery. His gut twisted unpleasantly at this visual indication of how easily her life could have been cut short.

He continued his perusal of her face. She reminded him inexplicably of his grandmother's china doll. Her skin was perhaps one shade darker but her hair was the same vivid red, her face softly rounded; even her cheeks had a becoming flush to them. Her eyes flickered towards him briefly before returning to her book and then back to him in surprise. He loved the slight tilt of her eyes and the slate-grey color that shifted with her emotions.

Her hair fell in her face and, before she could, he reached up and tucked it behind her ear then cupped her jaw.

"Wha-"

He closed her mouth with his own in gentle lingering kiss. Her eyes fluttered shut and she sighed. He smiled against her lips, realigned and kissed her again. Slowly he coaxed her into a response and the gentle kiss deepened and heated with their rising passion.

Madame Anise entered the room but Viktor ignored her as his mate had just discovered another use for her tongue. The nurse cleared her throat pointedly and Viktor opened his eyes and glared at the older women. She had a tray of food in her hand along with more potions.

Was it really that late? Reluctantly Viktor drew back. Paige made a noise of protest, which had Viktor's lips quirking in a satisfied smirk.

"Ve have an audience котёнок."

Paige's eyes flew open and met with Madame Anise. A blush spread out from her cheeks to her ears and down the high collar of her robe. She gave him an accusing glare and Viktor barely suppressed a chuckle.

Anise approached the bed after Viktor settled in his chair. She noted the bowl at Paige's elbow with a frown. She set the trey on Paige's lap and turned her frown on Viktor.

Viktor gave her a perfectly blank stare in return. "Mr. Krum she must eat more or her body will not be strong enough to continue fighting her illness."

Viktor turned his gaze to see his mate's rather mutinous glare and nodded at the Medi witch.  
>"She vill eat." he said with finality in his tone.<p>

He noticed Paige's expression bordered on refusal and defiance in response to his high handed tone. However as her only mate his Dracken would not let him eat until she did and she wasn't _that_ mad. Her sigh was one of resignation as she picked up her spoon and sipped the soup. Viktor's own meal came but he left it under its heating charm and continued to watch her eat.  
>She tore a chunk of bread from the small loaf next to her bowl.<br>"Have you ever hunted?" he asked suddenly.  
>She shook her head looking startled.<br>"I have several acres of woodland, but I wore the suppressors so never noticed an urge to hunt for myself."  
>"It is vun off our more baser instincts but fresh meat is far more tastier to our palate than even the rarest steak on the table. It is also a vau for a dominate to prove himself to his mate. Vhen ve go home I vill hunt for you. I think a fresh kill vill be good for you."<br>Paige seemed to consider his words, her expression surprised yet pleased. She smiled happily at him, then turned back to her soup and bread. Viktor sat a little stunned by the way her face had briefly lit up, he was incredibly pleased that he was the cause of that smile.  
>Paige fell asleep soon after finishing her food, complaining of a stomach ache until Anise provided a potion for it. Viktor ate his dinner watching her sleep. The pale tint to her lips and the slight labor to her breathing worried him. It alarmed him more that she couldn't eat even a light meal without feeling ill. It made him wonder how long she had been skimping in her meals and why neither Anise nor Shkadov had done anything about it before now.<br>He tried to remind himself that it had been less than a month since she had arrived at the Enclave and her healing had been hampered by the potions that had mixed with her blood. His instincts raged though, and he knew he needed to at least talk to the Medi-Witch. Setting aside his empty plate he stood. He placed a light kiss on his mate's cold brow then went to hunt down their Medi-witch.

oVVVo

Anise couldn't say she was surprised by the new mated dominates cold anger. She _was _surprised that he didn't look on the verge of murder. She was glad that she now had someone who would listen to her advice and recommendation on how to help the poor submissive in her care.  
>Viktor leaned against the closed door of her office his stance saying neither would leave the office until he had what he wanted. Anise shifted uncomfortably, momentarily wishing for her own dominates presence. He wasn't even in his Dracken form but the twenty year old wore his power and control like a comfortable cloak and his dominance like a sword at his hip, and it was intimidating. His brown eyes had a way of pinning you to the spot and making you want to spill anything and everything to lessen the force of his gaze.<br>"Tell me vhy my mate barely eats child size portions of food yet complains of being over full?"  
>Anise mentally winced, though unsurprised at his blunt questions, "I wish I could explain it. Her stomach is normal; I think it may be her mind. We could have force fed her, but any action of that kind brings out her alternate personality. I think a part of her associates the Enclave with her captivity in the warehouse and her body responds by starving her, the way the hoarders did. I can't stress how important being surrounded by something she associated with safety will be for her healing."<br>"You mean her own house...I cannot guarantee the place is safe yet."  
>"Neither can I, but I do know that, D.R.A.C.O cannot find her home. They have spoken to her previous employer, he said she forgot to put in her information and he never bothered to ask her for it."<br>Viktor's stance straightened and his gaze became even sharper, "A Fidelius"  
>"That is what Shkadov has decided only...Paige is not the secret keeper and no one knows who told her the address."<br>Viktor knew but he wasn't going to tell the Medi witch that.  
>"Vhen vill she be ready to leave."<br>Anise smiled, "I have all her potions and the specific way they need to be brewed for her body not to reject them. I have a chart drawn up for the next month. With your permission I will send them to you family doctor and you can take Paige away from here... Her home-"  
>"Leave her safety to me Medi-Witch Anise. I will do what is best for her."<br>"Yes but-" Viktor's gaze went so cold Anise felt the temperature in the room drop and she could say no more.  
>"Her things have been packed out of the Submissive wing and are there." she pointed to the shelf next to the door. Viktor picked up a pouch inside were two trunks shrunken to the size of a deck of cards."Thank you. Now, about the potions you have been giving her."<p>

Anise swallowed heavily, having momentarily felt she wouldn't have to have this discussion. The dangerous glint in Viktor's eyes told her she had better be careful how she worded her answers. She closed her eyes attempting to summon the courage. This would not be an easy conversation...

oVVVo

Paige was aware of several things when she woke up. She felt incredibly relaxed and rested a state she couldn't remember being in for a long time. She was cocooned in warmth that had nothing to do with her blankets and everything to do with the body that she was stretched out across and tangled with.

She also was not in the hospital bed she fell asleep in. In fact, they weren't even in the Enclave anymore. She slowly disentangled her legs from Viktor's, pausing whenever he seemed to stir from his sleep. Even in sleep he looked exhausted. She was sure he had suffered at least a little from the time outside and she wasn't at all sure when he had finally gone to sleep.

She could vaguely recall Viktor waking her and saying something about going home and warm weather. The potions though made her extremely sleepy and groggy. She probably would have agreed to anything he said. Though now she was a little miffed, she wanted to go to _her_ home.

She slid off the scarlet silk bedspread and padded on silent feet across black carpeting. She found a robe with Bulgarian Quidditch printed on the back with what she guessed was a Snitch in black and red. She picked it up and turned it over to find KRUM stitched on the breast of the robe. Paige felt her stomach sink as she traced the name. Her gaze took in the room around her. Quidditch paraphernalia was scattered along the walls, shelves lined one wall laden with trophies and medals.

She suddenly recalled Anise's had called her mate both Viktor and Mr. Krum. She turned in spot to stare at the man sleeping in the extra long and wide bed.

_Viktor_ Krum.

Viktor _Krum_.

How many times had she heard that name in reference to the Quidditch star? His name must have been mentioned at least half as much as Harry Potter from both Shkadov and the dozen of Dominates she had been forced to sit and listen too.

Quidditch Seeker, in his prime, record number of Snitch captures last season, expecting a great kick off game. All the little facts she had overheard and memorized without intending to raced through her mind. She realized that not once did anyone, ever, mention he was Dracken; not even Elder Shkadov.

She wondered how he managed to keep it a secret, if it was indeed a secret to the other Drackens. She hung the robe on a hook on the open closet door rather than back on the ground where she found it. She ventured to the other door and found it led to a bathroom done in chrome and black. She smiled at the Quidditch theme in there too, realizing that her mate really loved the game if he decorated his home with his work. She closed the door quietly, freezing at 'click' of the door going into place.

Viktor didn't stir and she breathed a sigh of relief. The last door faced the foot of the bed and she would have to pass close to the bed to get to it. She toyed with the hem of her pajama top trying to decide if he would be upset with her for looking around his home while he slept. Her choice was taken from her with a voice rang out from behind the door.

Viktor was up in a flash, eyes alert as they swept the room. The male voice rang out again, closer than before. Viktor looked momentarily panicked; he took two long strides towards her, opened the bathroom door and gently pushed her in.

"Stay here." he commanded.

Paige gapped at the door he quickly slammed. Through the wood she heard the other door open and the two men talking in Bulgarian. She huffed in irritation, turning and leaning her back against the door. Straight across from her was a mirror and she felt her irritation melt away. Her scales, fangs and claws were out, no wonder he had hidden her away.

She walked over to the mirror. It had been so long since she had seen herself in the mirror. She tilted her face and traced the scar on the side of her face, then the small one on her lip, the one across her nose had thinned and a faded to a white line against her skin. This close she could see it perfectly, but a little powder might hide it completely.

The talking outside the bathroom grew louder, and the other male seemed to be standing right next to the door. Did he know Viktor was hiding her? Was he trying to get in? She closed her eyes and willed her Dracken features away. It was like a momentary full body itch and then it was gone. She opened her eyes and looked at her very human features with relief. Her hair was back to its straight shoulder length and her skin smooth and free of scales. She ran her tongue over her teeth to find them perfectly normal.

It felt weird, which felt weird. She was looking at her reflection and felt like she was staring at a stranger. A bray like laugh from behind the door drew her attention. It didn't sound like whoever it was believed Viktor's adamant words. Well she looked human again so Viktor had no reason to hide her, right?

She approached the door intent on saving Viktor form fending off his over eager visitor when the door was thrown open on its own. She yelped in surprise as Viktor scooped her up in his arms and against his chest. She braced her arms on his shoulders to keep herself as steady as possible with her feet off the floor. To her bewilderment he began sniffing every inch of her. She squirmed to be put down but he merely growled and held her tighter.  
>"Viktor, I don't understand."<p>

"Just be still."

She sighed and stopped squirming, until he reached her waist and his nose tickled the excessively sensitive skin there. She tried to hold in her laughter but then he tongued the skin their and she yelped and jerked.

"Does that hurt." he murmured searching more insistently looking for injury.

"No, it tickles!" she laughed once again squirming in his grip.

He froze at her admission then drew back slightly and setting her on her feet again.

"Don't even-" a squeak of laughter interrupted her as he experimentally danced his fingers along her ribs.

"Interesting." he murmured, his eyes sparkling.

She huffed and glowered at him drawing her hands around her waist protectively.

"You aren't allowed to do that." she muttered looking away from him when she felt her cheeks begin to flush.

"Yes, I suppose now is not the time. My...friends vish to go to a uh...kruchma and vant to meet vomen that I vould stay home for...they are rather insistent, but I can Apparate us avay."

Paige looked down at her socked feet and twisted the hem of her shirt in her hands. Her hair fell forward covering her face so it hid the tears that threatened to spill. She bit her lip and willed them away.

She wasn't exactly sure what a 'kruchma' was but it sounded public. Her mate wanted to keep her a secret. She couldn't really blame him, the media could be vicious and she wasn't exactly pretty anymore with her cut up face. She nodded her head in agreement not trusting her voice. He didn't want his career tarnished by her appearance, she would accept that.

Tears fully under control she lifted her head and gave him a wide smile.

"I don't think I'm ready to start meeting people, especially not in my pajamas."

"Ve have appointment vith Kŭshta, my family doctor. Then we must find your lawyer-" Paige frowned, "Peter? Why? Did something happen?" Viktor shook his head, "Your house is varded. I believe under Fidelius charm. He told you vere your house vas, yes?"

Paige didn't know what a Fidelius charm was and she was alarmed to be told that her house had been under spells without her knowing. If Peter knew, did that make him a wizard? If he was a wizard why didn't he tell her she was a witch? Then the first part of Viktor's words came back and she took a step away.

"Wait, another doctor?"

Viktor turned away and out of the bathroom waving his wand a few times and she watched two spells hit the door. Viktor pulled a set of robes from the floor and rummaged through the pockets before pulling out a blue pouch.

"Here ve go, your cloths." he pulled two trunks from them and set them on the floor before tapping them with his wand. Paige watched in fascination as they grew to normal size as she moved closer. She opened the lid to find all the gifts from her room shrunken and neatly stacked inside. Viktor opened the other to reveal her clothes.

She grinned. "Magic is so cool." she breathed in excitement, "When do I get a wand?" she turned her gaze to him expectantly.

Viktor frowned, "Ve vill haff to do some shopping." his frown deepened, his eyes looked thoughtful, "Vill have to find shops in New Zealand, Sofia's school books are all in Russian."

"Where do you get wands anyway? No one has ever said."

"We haff wand makers, some are better than others. My vand was made by very famous vand maker Gregorovitch, but he is retired now. Ve vill find you vand, but not until Kushta says your core is stable enough for one. Your core is still like small child, a vand vould only hurt you. Kushta is Draken like us, he is very discreet and best doctor this side of Europe. I trust him vith my life and I trust him with yours."

Paige frowned as she dug through her clothes. She wasn't looking forward to meeting another doctor, but she was also very eager to not be surrounded by walls all the time. She found a shiny brown turtle neck blouse and the matching skirt with butterflies stitched in cream colored thread. She found her cream leggings and half sleeve robe. At the bottom of the trunk she found cream flats with brown butterflies that were charmed to flutter gently.

While she had found her clothes, Viktor had pulled a fresh set of clothes from his closet and she turned to find him tugging off the sweater he had worn under his robes. Her mouth went dry at the broad expanse of light skin that contrasted with his sun darkened face. Long lean muscle bunched and stretched with his movements, dark hair created a thick 'T' over his chest that tapered down and disappeared below his trousers.

She squeaked in surprise whirling away as said trousers suddenly dropped giving her a quick eye full of _all_ of him. She rushed into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Her face in the mirror was as red as her hair. She put her clothes down next to the sink and covered her face in mortification.

A hesitant knock at the door and it opened. Viktor peeked his head in looking slightly concerned and confused. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Paige couldn't stop the slight hysterical giggle. She was sixteen, she'd seen pictures of men in her biology books, but they didn't quite prepare her for the real thing. Sly had been naked but she hadn't actually _seen_ him, or at least not that she remembered. Viktor hadn't put his clothes on; he set them on the counter next to hers as he approached. She determinedly kept her eyes on the shower stall in front of her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." her voice was unnaturally high and she could see Viktor's frown deepen out of the corner of her eye.

"You vish to shower?" his gestured to the glass and black tiled cubical that was wide enough to fit him comfortably. Three shower heads extended from the three tiled walls, chrome pull knobs lined one wall and Paige realized she had no idea what they were for. He pulled his wand out of the pile of clothes and she watched him tap the knobs with practiced ease. Steaming water immediately shot from the water head and began fogging up the shower door. He stepped out hair slightly damp and moved towards her. She couldn't back up any farther, the counter pressed into the middle of her back and she held the edge in a white knuckle grip.

Viktor stopped with mere inches between them. She felt her face burning but she couldn't make it stop. He seemed to study her for a minute then come to some decision. She squeaked in fright as his hands circled her waist and hoisted her onto the counter top. He stood between her legs, her pajama's the only barrier between the two of them and it didn't seem at all adequate. Then he kissed her and she became oblivious to anything other than the soft press of lips and the slow burn that seemed to ignite within her. She dimly felt her top slide off her arms but couldn't remember why that should matter because his tongue was making her world tilt and spin and his warm hands on the bare skin of her back felt like heaven.

He pulled her from the counter top, bending slightly to maintain contact with her lips and stepped back forcing her to follow him. Warm water replaced his hands on her skin and she blinked coming back to reality. She was in the shower, with Viktor. She felt her cheeks warm again. Viktor turned her around to face one of the tiles. She was about to protest his manhandling, but she felt the cool slide of shampoo in her hair and his hands began to massage it into her scalp and it felt really _really_ good. He paid extra attention to the nape of her neck. She closed her eyes and melted into relaxing motion not even caring that she should be upset by their position. She was pretty sure she was purring, the contented sound rumbled gently from her chest. Viktor massaged soap into her neck and shoulders and paid gentle attention to the rest of her body. There wasn't anything sexual about it. It was loving and domestic and made some of the lingering fears she had about her situation vanish. Once she was soaped from head to toe he pulled her under a shower head and washed it all from her body with as much attention as he had paid putting it there. Once she was clean he pulled her out and wrapped her a towel then placed a quick kiss on her lips.

"Get dressed Kotëhok , I vill be out in moment."

Paige just stood there stunned and as her mind cleared from the haze he had produced with his kiss she became a little miffed at how easily he had been able to get her out of her clothes and into the shower with him when she had every intention of doing no such thing. Except she really had nothing to be mad about, they were mated, it was the kind of things people did with their mates and she had enjoyed it and he hadn't really taken advantage of her. She quickly dried off wrapping her wet hair in the towel before donning her clothes quickly. As she towel dried her hair she realized that although steam billowed from the shower the mirrors didn't fog up. She found a drawer with black hair ties and a hair brush. She realized her mate's hair was long enough to be pulled back in a very short spiky ponytail. She searched but didn't see any toothbrushes or paste. The shower turned off and Viktor's arm reached out and pulled the second towel off the wall. He stepped out with it wrapped around his hips. His hair dripped water and hung down to his shoulder. His lips quirked at the corner in an expression she couldn't name yet.

"You are beautiful." he said with absolute honesty and not a little bit of possessive pride.

She ducked her head and twisted the hem of her blouse in her hands. He picked her up again and she gave an indigent squeak when he set her on the counter again.

oVVVo

Viktor didn't think he would ever tire of the vocal way his mate expressed herself. Her face was magnificently easy to read and it pleased him that she would be incapable of hiding things from him. Everything about her was honest and real, not like the pureblood witches he grew up around or even the fans that hung around him. He tugged on the long locks that framed her face and brushed the tops of her breasts. He liked her hair cut in her human features, long in the front but in gradually got shorter until it barely brushed her shoulders in the back.

Her eyes watched him inquisitively, her brief anger disappearing as he remained immoveable and staring. Viktor also loved kissing her, he knew she had no experience with it and it pleased him beyond reason that even this was a first he could claim. He wasn't sure how long it would take her to go into heat but he knew he would cherish and horde this time where it was just the two of them for as long as it lasted. If it wasn't for his teammates in the front room and the doctor appointment, he would have put some series consideration in teaching her things beyond kissing. Yet he knew that as eager as his body was to claim her, she would require patience so he would resign himself to stealing kisses until she was ready for more. He kissed her again, pressing his hands onto the counter top on either side of her to keep them from drifting to places they should not. Her hands came up to his shoulders for balance. Her touch on his bare skin sent his blood rushing south. He drew back and mentally smirked in satisfaction at the dazed and flush look on his mates face.

He would never tire of this.

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><p><strong>AN:** So mostly fluff :) Hope you enjoyed it.

I have a party to get reardy for otherwise i'd take the time to respond in gratitude for everyone who took the time to review. I want you all to know I loved your review and I egarly look forward to your comments :D

Happy New Year

Ta!

**Juniper87**


	10. MediWizard

**A/N: Usual Disclaimer yeah? everyone knows this isn't mine.**

**Note: Sorry for the delay in updates, you guys seem pretty patient as I haven't gotten any "where the hey is the next chapter?" reviews. Thanks :) I really hate this chapter...I'm just sayin...It's why I haven't updated this is the third draft of this chapter and its the one i hate the least...so if no one likes it you wont hurt my feelings. I think that's all I have to say for now. Enjoy the chapter...or at least please endure it...  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Medi- Kushta<strong>

Paige wasn't sure what to expect from a wizarding doctor. Unlike Madame Anise Medi-Wizard Kushta's patients ranged from human to Veela and even the occasional werewolf. According to Viktor Doctor Kushta wasn't well liked in the Dracken community, but with the Drackens advanced immune and rapid healing systems and general hard to hurt nature he didn't feel the need to care about his fellows opinion of him. The snarky sarcastic doctor wore a short open robe that reminded Paige of a Muggle lab coat. He walked with a limp and a cane that doubled as a wand holder. His office was based in wizarding Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. There was a waiting room separated from the rest of the building by a door and a glass window. The waiting room consisted of two sofas and two arm chairs. Along one wall, underneath a window that overlooked the Sardica Market, Bulgaria's only Wizarding Market, was a table with a steaming pot of coffee and a chilled carafe of what looked like a pinkish orange juice she was told was pumpkin. Muffins were piled in a basket and Viktor handed her one along with the juice in a conjured cup.

"I ate breakfast!" she protested.

They had stopped at a cafe near the entrance to the market street and Viktor had threaten to feed her himself if she didn't clean her plate. Not that she believed for a minute he would do it, but the waffles and eggs with blueberry compote looked so delicious she had eaten until she was sick. Luckily, it had all stayed down. The meal was the largest amount of food she could remember eating since February, and that summer felt like it was years ago.

They had spent an hour going through shops as they made their way towards the medical office. She enjoyed the book sellers shop the most even if she couldn't read the majority of the books inside. She managed to find some books in English, a first year potions textbook and two books on household charms, one for cleaning and another for cooking. Viktor had muttered something about a house elf but bought her the books anyways. They had stopped at a Post office and Paige had looked at the various owls and raptors the office utilized for deliveries while Viktor received his mail that had piled while he was gone.

Now they sat in the waiting room and she had thought to scan her new books but instead found herself handed a second breakfast. Viktor's face held an expression she was coming to hate. Her mate seemed to expect obedience at every turn and while she realized she had gotten away with some talking back the likeliness of him letting her argue her way out of the muffin looked pretty slim. She was constantly aware of his gaze, whether he was looking at her or not she knew he was paying attention to everything she did, where she was in a room. It was oddly comforting but at times, like now, annoying.

She wasn't a child.

"I'm not hungry." she replied stubbornly, reaching in to her shopping bag and pulling out a book at random. She opened the book and ignored the muffin and her mate. 

_ Household charms are among the most common and widely used spells._

"I did not ask if you vere hungry. Is small muffin, you vill eat it." his voice brooked no argument but Paige was fed up with being yank around by the people around her and told what to do.

She continued to ignore the muffin and her mate's looming presence. She could sense his irritation even before he snatched the book from her hands. She leapt from the couch reaching for it, but her mate was taller than her and had long arms, he held it over his head and offered her the muffin. She glared hatefully at the muffin, something surged in her briefly and, with a _pop_ similar to a balloon bursting, the muffin disappeared along with all the other muffins in the basket.

The room tilted dangerously around her and she staggered into her mate's arm. Viktor caught her up easily, lifting her off legs that suddenly felt like jelly and settled on the sofa with her in his lap. She pressed her forehead against his shoulder and waited for the dizziness to pass. Her mate was very upset. His deliberate breathing and the stiff way he held her told her she had pushed his patients. She was beginning to see that his calm was worse than his anger. She _hated_ knowing he was mad at her. The dizziness began to fade and she lifted her head from his shoulder. His face was expressionless though his eyes glittered with anger.

When he spoke his words were slow and deliberate.

"You vill do no such thing again. Food is essential both for your body's healing and your magics stability. The more you use your magic the more energy your body needs, energy you only get from eating. I am avare of what you eat and vhat you don't. Now that you are mated your body vill eventually begin its cycle, if you cannot eat enough foods necessary to nourish your body through the period of heat you vill not survive it."

Paige ducked her head. She knew what he said was true, she knew how much she ate and how much she needed to eat was drastically different. She also knew that if she were still in Muggle society they would have probably kept her in a hospital on a feeding tube until she was eating normal, healthy portions of food. She would probably still be confined in a psychiatric ward too.

"Three meals a day vill not be enough, especially vhen your meals are so small a child vould be undernourished by them. No ve vill have to make sure you eat often. You are too skinny, "his fingers danced up her ribs making her snort as she tried to stifle the laughing reflex, "I can count your ribs and you have only lost vieght since you were put under Madame Anise's care. This must not continue. You vill not throw fits vhen I tell you to eat, I vill not stand for another show of stupidity as I just saw. You are sick, you vill let me help you."

Paige flinched as if struck and hunched her shoulders before nodding mutely. The door to the back opened with a snap. A man stood there leaning heavily on a cane. His salt and pepper hair stood up at odd angles as if he ran his fingers through it frequently. He had a day's worth of stubble on his face and his icy blue eyes glowered at the room. His lips were turned in a deep scowl. He snapped something at the women behind the window who responded with resigned forbearance.

"This is Dr. Kushta." Viktor murmured in her ear, "Do not let his demeanor scare you, the man is all bark. He does not speak English. Kotëhok it seems you have vanished more than the muffins in here." there was laughter in Viktor's voice now and Paige felt herself relax, despite the other man's glower being redirected at them.

Viktor stood as the man who had been his Medi-Wizard his entire life advanced on them. He set his mate on her feet but kept a supporting arm around her waist. He was pleased she leaned into him rather than stepping away. Kushta limped closer to them and his glower held consideration as he took in both of them.

"_Your little woman has something to do with my missing muffins, I presume?_" it wasn't really a question.

Kushta leaned forward and drew in a deep breath. Viktor watched as delight entered the medical man's eyes,

"_You have brought me a challenge! I do so love a good challenge_." The fifty year old medical wizard pivoted around and began to limp quickly back through the door, "_Bring her back, the white room if you please_."

Viktor glanced down at his mate who watched the back of the retreating wizard with a nervous and bewildered expression. He pressed against her back and they began to walk down the hall.

"Can't I continue seeing Madam Anise? Is this really necessary?" she pressed against his side like a frightened child, her gaze was entreating and perhaps if her health were not so fragile he would have caved into her desires.

But Kushta was the only person he trusted with his family and so the only person his mate would be seeing.

"I trust Kushta." he said simply and continued to lead her back into the warded white room.

The white room was the most heavily warded room in the building. Nothing spoken of inside the room could be heard outside of it and nothing but the truth could be inside in it. Glamours and potions were rendered ineffective the moment they stepped through the door. It was powerful and expensive Goblin work very few wizards ever bothered with it. Kushta however found it invaluable when treating new patients. It was this ward that caused his mate to collapse as soon as she stepped through. He gathered her in his arms and laid her on the bed at Kushta's orders, before rounding on the wizard.

"Did you know that vould happen?" he all but growled.

His Dracken snarled at the doctor, blaming the other for his mate's sudden collapse. Kushta waved his wand and a golden dome spread out from a point over her heart to encase her entire body.

"Of course not, but it is why I had you bring her here. If I am to know how to treat her I need to know what I am working with, not what Anise and Shkadov haven't managed to mask in their use of potions and Dracken blood."

Viktor felt as if his blood turned to ice. He stepped back from the bed and allowed the man to work over his mate's prone body. Silently he seethed, the idea that they would deliberately harm a Submissive for their own reasons drew up every murderous inclination he could have. That they would mask the problem and not fix it before releasing her made him furious. Submissives were delicate; it was in their genes and make up to be protected. With so few being born the Dracken's could not afford to lose one to miss treatment, especially not from another Dracken. It was a miracle in itself that Paige had survived captivity. The scars he had seen on her body that morning had created a visual map of her captivity. The worst of them weren't for any other reason than to cause her the most pain. They made him furious, not because they marred her beauty in any way, but that anyone would dare to do such a thing to someone so innocent and young as her. He found her all the more beautiful for them; that she continued to survive, despite everything against her, made her precious. He did not doubt that she would protect their children, their family, with the same stubborn will that she clung to her sanity and self. The Medi wizard raked a hand through his hair and let out a sound that was half sigh half growl that drew Viktor out of his thoughts.

"I can't believe they released her from the hospital." he said, "I'm surprised she's walking at all, functioning even. That burst of accidental magic shouldn't have been possible either."

A burnt orange folder appeared on the small table that extended from the wall near the head of the bed. Kushta flipped it open and tapped his wand to a blank paper that began to fill with words and numbers in a language Viktor couldn't read.

"The potions they've had her on contain a sedative and a herb that acts much like a compulsion charm. The Dracken blood they have been using as a base for the potion has come from Elder Shkadov. The sedative affects her Dracken, keeping it docile and silent unless she felt any high level stress or fear. The calming droughts she took every morning were strong enough that she couldn't feel anything. She shouldn't have been able to act as anything but a pet to Shkadov, doing what he said, when he said and nothing else. However her metabolism is off the charts and she burns through the potions fairly quickly, at most they were optimal for four hours after ingestion, after that she would have started to act and think more like herself.

"Worse though is her body is eating itself from the inside out. She hasn't had enough nutrients in her body in two months, even with the strengthening and nutrition potions Anise has given her. I'm going to have you give her a potion with each meal, three times a day. I'll have Marionette draw up a diet plan that should help her put on weight and combat the malnourishment. As far as I can tell she hasn't started her cycle so we have time to build up her muscles again and her reserves. I'm a little concerned with her Magical core. Someone placed a block on it. When she came into her inheritance it shattered the block, but that means her magic hasn't had eleven years to grow and settle; her magic is going to try and play catch up. Her bouts of accidental magic will probably become frequent the stronger her body gets, when they begin to lesson we'll know she's ready for a wand. I want to keep a close eye on her core so I want weekly visits, I can make house calls if she's more comfortable with that."

Kushta stopped talking for several seconds, but the pensive look on his face told Viktor he wasn't done yet.

"Have you had any contact with her other personality?"

Viktor nodded, "We fought in the forests around the Enclave, before she chose me as her mate. I have not spoken with it though."

"No...according to her file her other personality speaks very little, more animal than anything else is how they described it. I don't want to deliberately call out that personality, not until Paige herself trusts me. Mind healing is not my preferred field but I have adequate experience in the art that I won't refer her to anyone else. Encourage her to wear her Dracken features but don't force her to do so. She needs to accept it as part of who she is fully before we can even hope to start the real process of integrating the second personality.

"On a more positive note, much of her scarring is still repairable; the ones on her infected arm and leg will have to wait until the potions have been cleared out of her system. I believe though the rest though will fade with the correct application of some cream."

Viktor shrugged, her scars were not an issue for him, though he supposed his mate would be happy to hear that news.

"What about the...infection."

Kushta nodded, flipping through the file until he reached a pale green parchment, "Shkadov had the potions in the warehouse taken in and studied for components and use. They weren't meant for direct contact into the blood stream. From what my notes say the potions in the warehouse were a variant on the suppression potions, rather than suppress the Dracken it suppressed the human, making the imbiber nothing more than a body of animal instincts. The other is a parasitic potion; it feeds on the user's magic, draining them. Why they would want to do that we don't know. But the two potions combined in her blood stream and when they re-grew her leg and arm it latched onto the new forming tissue and integrated itself into their function. We could vanish the bones and re-grow them, but we cannot do the same to her muscles without risking some nerve damage as well. I want to contact a Potions Master I know. He's very discreet and non discriminatory and we can use patient codes rather than names to keep your privacy. I really want to get this potion infection out of her before she conceives, I'm afraid it may interfere with chick development. With her current unstable state a miscarriage could tip the balance to her feral personality."

Viktor frowned. He did not want anything to harm their chicks, and he wanted he potion removed as quickly as possible. He was always aware of the potions presence, it tainted her scent with something vaguely tar like. His Dracken had yet to completely settle whenever the scent caught his attention. Her illness sat in his gut like a tight knot and her health was the only thing he could really focus on. Still he was leery of putting his trust in the unknown Potions Master.

"What will this Potions Master being doing exactly?"

"I would like to send him a sample of the potion as it is now inside her muscle and bone."

"How would you do that?"

"I will have to adapt a Muggle technique as Madame Anise notes were very clear any kind of magic to that effect caused Paige's entire body to stop working. It will be painless for her, I promise."

Viktor was reluctant to agree, he did not see how the Muggles could possible do something that magic could not. However despite the nearly overwhelming instinct to take his mate and hide her away from the world he trusted Kushta more than anyone other than his parents.

So Viktor found himself paceing the waiting room and focusing all his control on remaining there. The sun continued its climb outside the window and the flow of pedestrian traffic began to increase as noon approached. He had no idea what was going on behind the door, the wards insured that all noise stayed inside. Which intellectually Viktor knew was a good thing, any noise from his mate and he would have the broken through the wards and taken her home, after stinging up his family's Medi-wizard. However his Dracken and his control waged internal war knowing that _something_ was happening to his mate back there and he could do nothing to stop it.

Noon passed with nothing but the quiet _tick_ of the clock on the wall to break the silence. A quick fire call had his meeting with Paige's barrister canceled. He did not think his control would hold throughout another meeting so he would take her home, feed her and keep her inside his wards for the rest of the day. It was approaching one thirty when the door opened on its own, an invitation for Viktor to go back.

He all but flew through the door and down the hall. When he came to the White Room he found his mate awake and staring up at the skylight while holding a glass of water. Kushta sat on a strange wheeled chair with no arms and a small circular head that he rested his arms on. He was obviously attempting to look as non-threatening as possible by placing himself at a lower level to Viktor and Paige as well as being a good distance away from the bed. Viktor ignored the Medi-wizard in favor of checking on his mate.

She sat strangely docile as he sniffed and licked every inch on her, even allowing him to pull and lift her clothes to get to the skin covered by them. He found small bruises on her infected arm and leg about the size of a finger print. He growled but when he turned around the Medi-Wizard was gone. He moved to hunt him down but the light pressure of his mates hand on his arm stopped him.

He focused on her completely and finally noticed what he hadn't when he walked in. He went completely still, drawing in the spicier scent that her second personality produced. He watched her warily, waiting for her to make a move. She smiled at him, eyes closed briefly and a wide show of teeth. She tugged on his robes, drawing closer to stand between her legs. The position hiked up her normally modest skirt, but she obviously did not notice. Completely bewildered by her calm Viktor stared into eyes with pupils dilated impossibly wide. Her scales glittered in the sunlight like teardrop diamonds across her forehead and cheeks. She drew closer to him and licked his cheek.

He stopped breathing.

She nuzzled his neck and ear, her warm breath wafted across his skin raising a lot more than just the goosebumps that appeared on his flesh. It didn't take him long to realize she was _pleased_ with him and she was letting him know the only way she knew how. She licked his pulse and gave a noise that was part hum part purr before she stilled completely.

"Viktor?" Paige's voice was filled with fear and confusion as she drew away from him, glancing around the room.

She latched on to the front of his robes once again.

"Did I...did I lose it again?"

He shook his head and placed a kiss on her forehead, "No Kotëhok you did not 'lose it'. You did nothing vong, you have been slept through the visit is all. Do you feel vell?"

Her eyes were their normal slate color and her scales faded again into her skin leaving them smooth and deceptively human again.

"I'm hungry." she said, sounding a little bewildered by this.

He nodded his head, "Ve vill go for lunch as soon as ve finish talking to Kushta. Vhat vould you like to eat?"

Her brows furrowed as she thought about his question. He noticed she was twisting the front of his robes between her fingers as she thought a habit she usually performed on the hem of her shirt sleeves. He knew it was a habit created from wearing the suppressor bracelet; never the less he resolved to buy her a bracelet to worry on to prevent damage to either of their clothing's.

"I want Sushi." she said finally.

He nodded, brown eyes twinkling in delight, "I know just the place."

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><p><strong>AN: **Hey you made it! Thanks for reading :D

So on another note thanks so much for the reviews, it made me silly happy that I have the same number of reviews as number of years I've been alive.

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and my faithful **anonymous** reviewer :D

Thank yo to all who have added me to their favorites and/or alerts!

I will try to have the next chapter up by Saturday!

Ta!

**Juniper87**


	11. Ambushed

**A/N: Usual Disclaimers :D**

**Also in order to get this out tonight there hasn't been much editing so I apologize for mistakes. I will probably..eventually..possibly go back and edit it and re post it...maybe...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>Ambushed<strong>

Viktor did not move from her side the entire time they waited on the Medi-wizard to come back. He hands smoothed her clothes, played with her hair, rubbed her back or any other action he could use to keep both hands on her. Paige couldn't help but preen a little under his attention. She didn't really understand why it made her happy but it did. They waited five minutes on the Medi-Wizard; when he came back in he was holding a lime green folder.

He launched in rapid Bulgarian which Viktor was quick to respond to. Paige cuddled into her mate and closed her eyes. She felt safe and warm in his embrace. As their incompressible words washed over her Paige took stock of her body. Her left arm rested in her lap feeling strangely heavy and weak, her right leg felt the same way. She wiggled her fingers on her left hand and felt the flex of the muscle under the long white scar she knew was there. She was aware of something in both injured limbs; it seemed to simmer through her blood from elbow to finger tip and from hip to ankle. Memory flashed through her mind, of the poison coated dagger slicing into her flesh for the first time, the acid burn of it as it attacked her blood stream. Remembered pain and fear slammed into her like a sledge hammer. She faintly heard a gasp come from her mouth but the ringing in her ears made everything sound far away. It grew louder and louder and then abruptly stopped.

She blinked.

Viktor's face was mere inches from her own; his eyes were dark with concern and fear for her. He held one of her hands to his cheek, the coarse stubble of a five o'clock shadow scratched the sensitive skin of her palm. His other hand held hers and was tapping it against the bed. The Wizard Doctor was murmuring quietly in the back ground as if guiding Viktor in his actions. She became aware that Viktor was speaking to her in English.

"..vith me, Kotëhok. You are safe, feel the bed beneath you, this is veal, you are in the White Room vith me."

She blinked again and released a shuddering breath as the last visage of memory released her. They stared at each other silently. Viktor's eyes softened with relief and his grip on her hand tightened briefly.

"Hello." she whispered softly.

"Hello." he said just as softly, "Vere did you do?"

Paige closed her eyes briefly before summoning a smile, "To memory." Silently she begged him not to ask anymore.

He turned his head and placed a warm lingering kiss to her palm before releasing both her hands. Her arm fell limply into her lap and she felt strangely bereft without his touch. She gave herself a little shake and clinched her hands into fists.

Shkadov's voice whispered in her head _"...the human is very weak. She will cling to any illusion of safety."_

She was weak. She looked up at her mate her and gave him a smile, but she didn't reach for him the way she ached to. Instead she slid from the bed. Her right leg shook and her knee gave a good impression of being made of Jell-O before it steadied beneath her and held her weight. She looked up to see both her mate and doctor watching her intently. Viktor looked ready to reach for her and she deliberately shifted away from him. She could do this, she could stand on her own, she wasn't broken.

Her leg however begged to differ. She attempted to take a solid step but her knee refused to hold and she stumbled. Viktor reached for her and she flinched back, finding support from the bed. He stopped immediately and she saw the flash of hurt in his eyes before he expertly hid them behind is normally emotionless face.

Her heart twinged at what her actions had done. She looked down at her hands that gripped the rail at the end of the bed with white knuckle intensity. Her left arm was beginning to shake from the effort. She felt tears prickle in her eyes before she ruthlessly squashed them.

"What did he do to me?" she asked, disgusted at the way her voice shook from emotion, "I was fine. I was fine until I walked in here."

Viktor made a derisive noise, "You vere not fine, the potions only gave your infected limbs the illusion of strength." he paused noting her confusion, "Is like...broom, vith it you can fly, vithout it you vill never leave ground. The muscles in your arm and legs are weak because the potion is no longer in them and they have not been properly vorked in two months."

Her head snapped up in surprise. Viktor seemed to realize her assumption and shook his head, "No, the infecting potion is still there. It grew into your bones and muscles, veakening them and you. Kushta and a...friend of his vill be working on dissolvent for the infection. In the mean time ve vill have to vork you arm and leg and build muscle again in them."

He seemed very confident in his ability to do so and she wondered if he'd ever sustained similar injury during Quidditch. Dracken Dominates are pretty hard to hurt though and she couldn't imagine anything in Quidditch that could do that kind of damage to a body, granted what she knew of Quidditch wouldn't fill a tea cup.

Kushta spoke again drawing her attention by using her name. Somewhere he had gotten four slim vials fill with different colored liquids. He handed them to Viktor who looked at them intently. Kushta also handed him a sheaf of parchment with Cyrillic writing on it. They spoke briefly before turning back to face her.

"These are the potions you have been taking every day." Viktor explained, "You vill only take this" he indicated the orange-ish colored vial, "once a veek now. There presence vill slowly fade allowing you to gradually vork your muscles." He tucked a lavender colored potion into his robes, "That is a calming potion should you need it today. This" he showed her a mossy green potion, "Is to be taken vith every meal to give you the nutrients your current meal size does not."

That left a purplish black filled vial; the contents looked the consistency of tar. Viktor's expression was a mix of disgust barely checked fury, "Med-Vizard Kushta though you vould like to see what is infecting your arm and leg." He held out the vial and Paige stared at it in morbid fascination. She could almost imagine the fluid insinuated in her muscles and bones. Tentitvely she took it from his hand and turned in over in her palm.

The vial was disturbingly warm in her palm and it slid sluggishly along the glass containment. She remembered the spilled potions seeping into her arm and leg when she lay broken on the warehouse floor. The fluids hadn't been this color then.

Perhaps it was a little perverse but she wanted to keep the vial, if for no other reason than to have a visual of what was in her body and messing it up. She looked up at Viktor and the wizard doctor neither of them semd inclined to take it from her so she closed her fist over before slipping it into her pocket.

Kushta smiled as if he had expected her actions. Looking at her he spoke briefly. She glanced at Viktor for translation. Viktor was frowning at the Doctor but then turned to her.

"He says to keep you enemies close is very good idea."

She smile at the adage and at the Doctor.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"Ve vill go to lunch. Medi-vizards potions maker vill send our supply of potions to us later. You are hungry and you should have your first dose of these new potions as soon as possible. Then ve vill go home."

Paige felt a surge of hope in her chest, "Home?" she asked.

Viktor looked at her, his expression seemed a little more dower, "My flat." he clarified, "I cancled vith Mr. Shibuya you vill no doubt be tired after lunch and I do not vant to over excite you."

Paige glowered. Over excite her? What was she, four years old again?

"I would like to see Peter." she said, "I have things I need to learn from him."

"Tomorrow." Viktor said.

"Today." she demanded.

They stared silently at each other, neither one willing to renig on their demands.

Kushta said something and Viktor snapped back at him. The older man shrugged and tucked the lime green folder under his arm before saying something that sounded uninterested. Viktor's expression was colder and she noticed his hands fist by his side.

Paige looked down at her own hands, worrying the edge of her shirt. She bit her lip and looked back up at her mate, her expression pleading.

"Please Viktor." she said softly, "I need some answers."

Viktor stared at her for a long moment and she was pretty sure he would deny her again. Then his eyes softened and his shoulders relaxed.

"Very well. Ve vill go to lunch. I vill take you to see Mr. Shibuya only if you promise that ve vill leave if you became over tired."

Paige smiled and nodded easily, "I promise."

**oVVVo**

Paige was delighted by the wizarding town they appeared in a mixture of old world Japan architect. The wizards and witched wore robes that were heavily influenced by the kimono and yukata style of dress. Red and gold lanterns floated above the streets cast warm glow in the dark of the evening. Dragons and spirits and calligraphy kanji decorated everything in bright red and gold. The shift from early afternoon to late evening was momentarily offsetting. He kept a hold of his mates hand as they moved from the alley to the bustling streets of Takigawa village.

"The Japanese wizards still hold a reverence for the power of the dragons. Though our people are feared and shunned because of our 'impure' nature. They consider us to be the children of trickster demons, a mockery of the dragons sent to devour and destroy. "

Paige twisted her face in disgust, "I don't find hunting humans am appetizing idea at all."

Viktor hid a chuckle at her response in the kiss he placed in her hair.

"Of course not."

He led her into a richly decorated restaurant where they were greeted by a heavily made up woman. Her kimono was made of rich silks in pinks, reds and blues. Her black hair was held up by two long bejeweled sticks.  
>She smiled warmly at Viktor her eyes did a quick scan of his stature and Paige was sure the women mentally licked her lips. Paige felt a surge of possessiveness and the hand holding Viktor's tightened.<p>

Viktor squeezed back and spoke to the other women in a distinctly bored and dismissive tone. His posture was every inch the pure blood nobility he was. Paige visibly saw the hostess wilt. Wizarding Japan still had distinct classes and honor system, he told her. They had an equally distinct magic education system that was completely closed to any outside country or foreign born citizen. The school in New Zealand was the closest for the country and Durmstrang out matched most schools this side of the continent. China had the honor of having Asia's best magical education institute. Paige listened avidly to her mate's explanation as they waited in a secluded alcove lit by two floating lanterns for their waiter to approach. Despite the Japanese decor the tables were distinctly western with high legs and plush red velvet cushioned seats.

A small man maybe three inches taller than Paige materialized in a puff of smoke. He folded at the waist in a bow.  
>"Most honorable guests, what can I serve for your pleasure?"<br>To Viktor's surprise (and the waiters) Paige launched into rapid and fluent Japanese. Viktor found himself excluded from the conversation unaware of what they said and he did not like it. Viktor frowned at this reminder that, despite their intimate feelings and bond, he knew very little about her life before Sly met her.

The little Japanese wizard smiled brightly and bowed several times in rapid succession then turned to Viktor expectantly. Viktor tersely ordered a Sashimi plate and sake. The man bowed again and left the way he came.

"Vhere do you learn to speak Japanese like that?"

"Umino-san owns a Japanese hibachi-grill restaurant in Inglewood two buildings down from where I worked at Charlie's electronic and auto repair. Umino-san's car was always breaking down or filled with dents when his wife got mad. She was always throwing things too, so I fixed a lot of their appliances both in their home and their restaurant. I pick up things easily so learning Japanese wasn't hard and Umino-san and his wife loved teaching me. They had no children of their own so when I went over for house calls Umino-san would give me lessons in kanji and quizzes on vocabulary while I fixed whatever was broken. Learning how to order food was the first thing I learned."

Viktor liked the soft happy smile that graced her face as she spoke of the Umino's. Though he wondered why they had never adopted her as it sounded as though they were fond of her.

"Is that vhat you vere doing just now? Ordering food?"

The answer was obvious but he wanted to be sure.

"Yeah. He asked where I learned to speak with my accent, and said I learned from friends in New Zealand."

Viktor nodded and took a sip of water from the glasses that had appeared as the waiter had Disaparated.

Paige glanced around them as they fell into silence. The restaurant was set up to give the patrons optimum privacy. Each table was built into a half circle alcove with the option of drapes to completely conceal them. Tables in the middle were placed around shoji screens.

There was a soft gong that rang above their heads then their food appeared on the tables in front of them. Moments later their waiter appeared with a _tokkuri,_ a ceramic flask of sake and two small _choko _cups. He poured them both some then set the bottle on the table near Viktor.

Paige made and noise of exclamation then spoke to the waiter. The waiter smiled again the bowed and poofed out.

Paige faced him with a smile and raised her hands palms together in front of her chest, "Itadakimasu!" she said then grinned at his baffled expression, "You're supposed to say it before eating."

Viktor copied her motions and stumbled over the unfamiliar word. She gave him a winning smile before picking up a piece of sushi from in front of her with a pair of black chopsticks and popping it in her mouth. She gave a moan of delight that shot straight through him, he watched her eat. The varying degrees of delight that passed across her face were entrancing. She'd never eaten so vocally before and he felt his body temperature rising at the unconscious sensual motion and noises she made. She stopped with her chopsticks loaded with thick piece of raw squid on a rice roll when she noticed he wasn't eating.

"Is something wrong?"

He wasn't sure he trusted his voice to be steady so he merely shook his head and took a mechanical bit of something off his plate. She made a little sigh at her next bite. Viktor continued to place food in his mouth but he hardly noticed what he was eating. Merlin he'd never wanted to be anything as bad as he wanted to be on the end of her chopsticks. She took a delicate sip of sake and hummed in pleasure. She was going to drive him insane.

She set her chopsticks down primly on the holder above her plate and he disappointedly noted that her plate was empty.  
>She sipped on the sake while he finished his own meal. It was only his steady attention on her that saved the <em>choko<em> cup from smashing into the table as it fell from her suddenly lack grip. Luckily there was little left in the tiny cup and the spilled rice wine landed on her empty plate.

Her eyes had glazed over, her pupils had become pinpricks and a strange blue color was shot through her eyes. It looked nothing like the distant look from the medi-wizrd's office. Her face also lacked all expression.

"Kotëhok?" he said his voice calmer than he felt. He took in a deep breath and his Dracken grumbled in agitation. He snapped is fingers in front of her face but she didn't blink.

"_Senkensha_." the waiter had appeared. He stood a respectful distance from the table which meant he was safely out of Viktor's reach. Viktor growled at the man. His mate was weak and vulnerable now; he did not want anyone close to her.

"She is _Senkensha_, she _sees_." the way he said it told Viktor the wizard knew exactly what was happening.

"Speak to her, she will tell you what she sees. I ensure your privacy." The dishes disappeared and the curtains closed around the table, sealing them in the amber glow of the red paper lantern above them. He felt a silencing charm settled around them. Viktor added his own privacy charms. He kept his wand in one hand and took Paige's with the other.

"Kotëhok, what is it?"

Her voice wasn't hoarse like most Seers, she wasn't giving a Prophesy. Instead it was hollow and faint as if she spoke from far away.

"Peter is in his office, he's packing away files. He's unhappy about a canceled appointment. He's distracted so he doesn't notice the sound of the main door opening. His secretary is already gone and his partners are in China right now. He's all alone. Someone's in the office with him...no several people. He's surprised and scared. He's being threatened; they're all mad, furious with him. All of them have wands, pointing at him."

She blinked rapidly, her pupils reverted to normal and her face took on a distinctly worried expression. Her hand tightened of his.

"Viktor, I think they killed Peter."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Yeah...my chapters I realize are kinda short. I debate on making them longer and stop trying to post every week and make it every other week instead. I dunno what do you guys think?**

**Reviews!**

**I love reviews so thank you honestly and truly, they keep me working on the story and away from video games :D**** Thank you Everyone who reviewed!**

**Rachel-rob-Sandwhich**

**Ellie**

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**Until next week**

**Ta!**

**Juniper87**


	12. Nas Ne Dagoniat

**Disclaimer: If you think i own This, you haven't been paying attention...**

**A/N:** Hi!...Enjoy the chapter, all my excuses are at the end ;P

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><p><strong>Chapter Twelve- Nas Ne Dagoniat<strong>

Viktor didn't have time to even begin contemplating the ramifications of what his mate had said before the restaurant rocked with the wave of an explosion. Heat slammed into them with the force of Bludger knocking them both into the wall of their alcove.

Paige's head hit his chin and her shoulder hit his chest with enough force to knock the wind out of him. His ears rang with the sound of screaming and the crackle of fire. He had barely gotten his arm around his mate before the curtains were ripped from their moorings and the spells collapsed around them.

Six hooded wizards stood just inside the burning remains of the front of the restaurant.

Paige made a noise of distress but Viktor did not have to look at her to see her face pale and tighten in recognition. The smell of burnt flesh and blood radiated from the attacking wizards. Beneath that was something that sent chilled his blood.

One or more of them where Dracken.

Viktor flipped his wand so it pointed behind them and with a silent curse the wall liquefied and he rolled through tugging Paige after him. The wall solidified behind them but he did not wait around to watch. They were in the back alley, rubbish bins lined one wall. The street was a chaotic mass of scrambling bodies he caught a glance of the local law and ducked back into the alley. They absolutely could not be caught by the Japanese Auror's.

The restaurant wall exploded outwards just as he pushed Paige around the corner. He caught a glimpsed of a scar-faced wizard before he was around the corner and chasing after his mate.

Paige was fast Viktor learned. She raced around the alley network dodge and leaping over bins and crates as easily as a cat. The only hint of weakness was the way she bit her lip every time her weight came down on her leg. As soon as they cleared the business district Viktor pulled Paige into his arms and Disapparated.

By the time the wizards reached the spot they would hopefully be unable to trace the magic residue.

oVVVo

Paige barely had time to register the world solidifying around them before it tilted on its axis and she was on the ground under the heavy weight of her mate. The air was knocked from her chest and she squirmed and gasped trying to remember how to breathe. Her efforts were hindered by her face being pressed against Viktor's shoulder. Some shoving and shifting and she was able to tilt her head enough to unblock her nose and mouth.

She took a lungful of air then three calming breathes. Viktor was unconscious, from the amount of magic he had put into their escape she could only assume that this was a result of magic exhaustion, something she had been warned to avoid and experienced twice already.

Her arms were pinned at her sides and her legs where tangled in his. She gave a helpless huff and rested her cheek on her mates shoulder ghosting her nose against his pulse. She could feel his heart beating against her chest at an erratic pace but the longer they lay there the calmer it was.

When their heartbeats synced she began calling his name softly. She was afraid to be loud least they get unwanted attention. She wasn't sure how far behind them the other wizards were but she imagined it was only a matter of time before they found them.

Pinned on her back all she could see was fast moving storm clouds to her left she could see a steely gray lake lapping at the rocky edge of the bank. She sent a prayer of thanks that they had landed on a grassy expanse and not the rocks mere feet away. Although, that did explain the sharp edge that was digging into her shoulder. She didn't smell any blood so she was felt safe in assuming nether one of them had been injured or splinched.

She started squirming more, trying to get her hands between them when a chorus of cracks rent the air like gunfire. She froze and ducked her head beneath Viktor's shoulder again and held her breath listening intently.

It was completely silent. She squeezed her eyes closed praying they weren't as visible as she felt they were. Finally someone broke the silence.

"You're spells were always a bit rubbish Iwao. You sure it's working? All I see is a lake." The voice was unfamiliar but tugged at her mind like she should remember it.

"Hapi, I learned it from you so if it's rubbish it's your fault."

She recognized her lawyer's voice, though she couldn't understand why Hapi called him Iwao. Two more voices chimed in with nearly the same pitch and tone creating a bizarre stereo effect. Whatever they said was lost to her because Viktor groaned above her.

She hissed at him to be quite wishing desperately she could clap a hand over his mouth. He stilled above her, not making another noise and she assumed he was still unconscious.

"Quiet, all of you." The new voice's command and a promise of pain behind it and sent all sorts of bells off in her head. His voice was the closest, he sounded right next to her but she wasn't sure if that was just her imagination or an effect of his voice.

Paige closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could on being invisible. She didn't know who those men were with Peter, and she felt ice settle in her stomach at the thought that Peter might work for the Hoarders.

"They are here somewhere, spread out and look for them."

"Ay Ay Big Brother." Hapi's voice was unrepentantly mocking.

Paige felt a little tension leave her body. Peter had mentioned he had a large family and it sounded like he had brought some of his brother's with him, but why and how had they followed them here? Even hooded as they were, she had recognized most of the Hoarder's in the restaurant; Peter had not been one of them.

She didn't hear any movement and curiosity lead her to shift so she could gaze over Viktor's shoulder, however that didn't grant her view of what was taking place around them.

Viktor shifted again above her, silently this time. Some of his weight lifted off her as he pulled himself up on his elbows. His face was pale and eyes glassy and unfocused. His shoulders trembled with the effort to hold himself up. She raised her fingers to her lips to indicate silence and he nodded slowly. Glancing to her right she noted that a large tree had fallen against its neighbor and spriggy brush had grown around it, blocking them from view. Viktor dropped onto his side, one arm gripped her hips keeping her against him.

She knew there were at least four men out there looking for them but they moved in complete silence preventing her from tracking their movements. She was concentrating on searching them out she didn't notice Viktor's nuzzling of her shoulder until a sharp pain spread from it as he bit into it.

She barely suppressed her cry of surprise but she didn't struggle or move away. As he licked and sucked her blood the tremors in his body quickly faded. It was over in mere seconds and the wound closed quickly leaving only pinked flesh like a hickey.

He murmured and apology in her hair and she shook her head to assure him she wasn't mad. The thought would have crossed her mind sooner if Peter and his brother's hadn't appeared. Her blood was as much as source of strength and healing as his was for her. He sat them up, pressing his back against the tree trunk and holding her between his legs. His breath was labored again, though she could tell he tried to keep it quiet. He pressed his forehead against her shoulder and she could feel him gathering is strength.

He hadn't taken enough blood, she though desperately, they weren't ready to take on four wizards if it came to that. Paige nearly shrieked when the transparent form of a sixteen year old male ghosted through the trees. Viktor's head whipped up and the two of them eyed the ghost.

"Yukie." The boy said tilting his head to the side and smiled.

"Who-" Viktor's hand clapped over her mouth.

The ghost stared at him and Viktor stared back, somehow she felt a silent communication pass between them because the ghost suddenly smiled again.

"Welcome to the family." He said before drifting back through the tree.

Both Paige and Viktor stilled in shock. When she tilted her head back to look up at him he had a speculative look on his face.

"It is possible your brothers have found you." He murmured quietly into her ear soft enough that the wind masked the sound and only her Dracken hearing allowed her to understand him. He looked more worried than relieved by this thought. She had the impression that he knew something about her family.

She would have been angry at the fact that until now he hadn't given any indication that he knew very much about her, but she couldn't think of a moment since they had bonded that would have been a good time to bring it up.

"Peter is with them." She murmured just as quietly.

Viktor seemed to reach a decision because he lifted his wand it emitted golden threads of light that extended into a dome around them. Her skin tingled as the sensation of magic surrounded them. Shouts went up and all stealth seemed to have been forgotten for it sounded like a herd of elephants were stampeding closer.

She pressed her back into his chest and he wrapped his arm more securely around her waist.

Peter vaulted over the tree trunk they hid behind and passed over them, landing in the lake with a loud splash. Water splashed against the shimmering dome and slid down leaving them untouched. Peter whirled around wand out and glowing with an unleashed spell.

Paige gapped at her lawyer. He had always been slicked and composed when they had met. Always carried a slightly arrogant and condescending air about him. But he stood in the muddy lake water, hair mussed, with a split lip, his shirt pulled from his trousers with the top buttons missing. His tie was absent and his bright blue robes did not match the dark green trousers and emerald shirt.

More men, increasing in age came around the trees to stand in a semicircle around them.

They all shared varying features, they were obviously brothers. The nearly identical triplets and a set of twins made her wonder if she had hit her head after all.

One of them tucked his hands in cut off blue jean shorts and gave her a wink.

In bizarre stereo the triplets pointed at her and in unison spoke,

"Oi! What's Viktor Krum doing with our sister?"

oVVVo

Viktor did not need an Inner Eye to see the future before him.

Sixteen brothers.

Sixteen _older_ brothers.

Sixteen older brothers who were raised by Dracken and have just figured out that they have sister.

They were barely mated, and he was already going to have to share her. He growled in frustration.

Unfortunately, all sixteen of her brothers took exception to this noise and he found himself facing fourteen wands and the barrel of a gun. The ghost merely scowled at him.

His skin twitched with the urge to unleash his Dracken but he clamped down of the homicidal urge and kept his thoughts rational. They weren't about to start casting spells on their sister, not that he planned to use Paige a shield but he doubted he could stand for very long to do a credible job of protecting her. What little blood he had taken served more as caffeine shot than any substantial magical gain. His core pulsed weakly and he knew it would take a good eight hours sleep before he was useful for more spells than what he had just produced.

He mentally grimaced at his lack of forethought. Getting Paige away from the Village had been his one and only thought when he had Disapparated. It was impossible to Apparate from Japan to Belgium, so he imagined they were somewhere in between. Somewhere in China would be his guess.

"Paige, are you hurt?" Peter stepped up to the edge of the shield and knelt down after Viktor made no move in response to the raised wands.

She shook her head, "What are you doing here?" she blurted out.

"We were responding to the commotion in the Food District when we saw you running away from him and kidnapped." Peter studied Paige's face and then Viktor's.

"You weren't kidnapped were you?" he said with a small smile.

She shook her head, "No."

Viktor's hand covered her mouth preventing her from saying anything else.

"I need proof you are you who seem to be." He leveled a dangerous glare on each of the men.

Peter lifted his wand, "I swear on my life and my magic I am Iwao Yanagi, known as Peter Shibuya and I am no threat of harm to my sister Yukie Yanagi, legally Paige Willows."

Each man crafted a magical oath of near the same as Peter's.

Paige tensed in his arms as one by one they declared themselves her family.

"Why now." She blurted out breaking the silence after Henry Fechlin-Smith's gave the last Oath. Her voice was small and cracked with emotion. Though she met the eyes of each of the men.

"Why are you here, now?" she repeated.

All eyes shifted away from her they stared at each other and then all looked to the oldest, Lawrence.

"That is long tale." He said, his voice was emotionless but his eyes were soft as he met her accusing stare, "One we will share when our location is safe and secure.

If you would Mr. Krum drop your shield, my brother's and I have active Portkey's to Peter's house. His being the closest with wards I trust."

Viktor did not have a time to respond to the politely worded order. The world around them exploded once more with the crack of Apparation.

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><p><strong>AN: ** Okay so Good news! Yeay I updated :D Better News, this marks the resumption of week updates, huzzah! everyone cheer.

So..there are a couple reasons that it's been a while but after debating the whole update vs chapter length to myself I found myself playing World of Warcraft alot due to a pretty cool guild I stumbled upon and ...yeah so Video games ate up my write time.

Now normally I'm pretty decent at dividing my time between lots of things, but this chapter did not want to be written the way I wanted it to be written. This was actually supposed to be a pretty tame chapter with her discovering her brothers and yadda yadda yadda. However...i realized too late that after her little bomb at the end of chapter eleven Viktor would in no way what so ever allow her anywhere -near- Peter's workplace. Paige's switch between personalities was still recent enough that her normal obstinate streak would not exert itself enough for her to deliberately run away from Viktor, which had, originally, been my plan. So...sadly as this refused to be written, I refused to write.

Then, the power of the reviewer kicked my but into gear. **Kimbers1964** reviewed every other chapter, kindling a renewed drive to write the chapter, squashed too soon by a sudden influx of guild activity on WoW. The **anon** subtly informed me of her/his imminent demise if I didn't update. So I sat down and opened my word document for Insanity and stared at it.

Now this may make me a bad author, but I don't do iron clad plot lines, nor indeed is anything in my story iron-clad as characters can be killed and replaced with relative ease. So..what perhaps makes me a bad author is when I get stuck, specifically when my characters refuse to do as I want, someone gets hurt...dies, or in the case of this chapter, things explode. It's a rather dirty trick to get a scene moving but there you go, that's how its done.

The sad truth is I don't do -slow- very well. I apologize if this chapter seems...inconsistent because of my rather odd writing tactics when dealing with recalcitrant plots and characters. However I don't make a habit of throwing things out randomly and I do like tidy explanations, even if they come rather late.

Having said all that, you guys are positively brilliant and I would hug each and everyone of you who has reviewed and/or Favorited/alerted this story.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

~Ja

Juniper87


	13. Fear Them

**Disclaimer: ...Is this really necessary?  
><strong>

**A/N**: Enjoy the chapter :)

**Fear Them**

The sounds of Apparation still hung in the air when The Brothers jumped into action. Lawrence began barking orders in Gaelic, their mother's language and one they had used to confuse many enemies before. Lawrence noted with grim approval that, after seventeen years of separation, his brothers responded to his orders as readily as any military unit he commanded.

The battle was over before it even began. Despite their youth the enemy was surrounded and outnumbered by men trained to fight with lethal force before they had ever lost their eye teeth. The Brothers may be as human as any wizard, but they were raised by a trio of very inhuman fathers. Yanagi was a name revered throughout wizard-Asia as master in blended battle. His body was as dangerous a weapon as his wand. Fechlin-Smith had been an unparalleled Auror in America and Mubarak wards were as unbreakable as they were impossible for the average wizard to perform. What this meant was their horde of offspring was a force to be reckoned with. The Hoarders, trained to fight Dracken as they were, were no match for the fourteen magical brothers. Warren was far from helpless despite his lack of magic and twice as lethal with hand to hand combat as any of his brothers.

"Get them out of here, Warren go with him." Lawrence shoved the Portkey into Warren's hand before pushing him towards the three bodies against the tree. They were the enemies target and the most vulnerable; getting them to safety was first priority. His other siblings had already scattered in response to his orders.

He did not even look to see if his brothers obeyed him before moving quickly towards the enemy.

Six wizards stood in a defense circle a hundred feet from where his sister was. They hadn't even realized they were surrounded yet, but he admired their form.

He gave the signal.

Spell light lit up what could loosely be called a forest, though it consisted more of scraggly bushes than actual trees. Over head thunder rumbled. Lawrence erected an anti-Apparation field as soon as he felt the three magical auras disappear behind him.

There really wasn't much left after that. With laughable ease the six wizards were rendered wandless, the majority of them senseless and all of them bound. The Brother's moved to surround their pray. With a viciousness they never showed in polite society, they stripped the men of every ounce of knowledge. Every plot, scheme, hideout and personnel that went into planning the attack on their sister and then they ripped through memories for anything else useful.

While his brothers were busy gathering information from the wizards, Lawrence gave his personal attention to single Dracken in the mix. Most of their offensive spells had been useless against him and he had been the last to go down from the physical attacks of the triplets.

Lawrence pulled out a dirk and pressed it against the traitorous scum's neck. Known Dracken hunters had always had a special list. He couldn't take them down for killing a Dracken but he had make their lives hell until he pinned something else on them. To find a Dracken working with those monsters riled every single bloodthirsty inch of his body.

He hadn't missed the marks on his sister's face. He knew a Hoarder's work when he saw it. He hadn't missed the way her body and curled instinctively into that Quidditch player's body. He knew a Dracken pair when he saw one.

"Now then, son. You are going to tell me exactly what I want to know, or you'll experience every pain every Dracken you've lead your band of murders to at thrice the pain."

He didn't smile at the fear that widened the man's brown eyes.

oVVVo

Viktor pitched forward as soon as his feet hit solid ground. Warren's arm caught him, saving him from an embarrassing meeting with the tatami mats below. They were in a largish room with Shoji screen walls. It was window-less and furniture-less.

Peter waved his wand and one of the walls slid open to reveal a long hallway. Viktor got his footing and pulled away from Warren, his hand automatically reaching for Paige. She took his hand and stepped close to him.

Peter and Warren lead them down the hall before opening another wall-door. It was a bedroom, though not one styled in a way he was used to. All the furniture was set close to the ground. The bed raised barely off the ground by a small black platform. The head of the bed was set against a wall painted with a cherry blossom tree in Japanese art. Scrolling Kanji ran down the side, the meaning unknown to Viktor. Besides the bed, there were two short night-tables, a short burrow of sorts and paper lanterns floated close to the ceiling. They had lit up the moment the door opened casting an amber glow around the room.

"Lie down before you fall down." Warren pushed him into the room. Paige stumbled in after him yanked by their connected hands.

"The Brothers will be busy for a while. You both look in need of peace and quiet. We'll have the full story when The Brothers get back."

Viktor could hear the capitalization in the words every time Warren spoke. He wasn't given the opportunity to respond. The screen door closed, cutting them off and leaving him alone with his mate.

He turned to look at Paige. She looked tense, there was grass in her hair and dirt on her clothes, and damn him he hadn't enough magic in him to clean them up, or make sure their room was safe.

He had to rely completely on his Dracken instincts. He felt safe. The comforting pressure of wards and high magic area brushed his senses. He sighed, raking his free hand through his hair. He knew very little about her brothers, names age and location were all that had been provided in the file Sly had sent him.

Paige tugged on his hand, guiding him to a low table set with pillows and a steaming tea pot. Silently she pushed him to the floor and then knelt, pouring tea into a cup and pressing it into his hand.

As he sipped the tea, she went over to the burrow. As if she had been here a hundred times before she slid open the door and pulled out a stack of clothes. She stood and scanned the walls before walking over to a panel that had a small circle in it at about waist height. She slid open the wall to reveal a bathroom.

From his seat on the floor he watched her bustle around the bamboo walled room, touching things that looked completely useless to him but that began to produce water from the wall. His head began to feel foggy from exhaustion and he propped his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand, watching his mate through half-lidded eyes.

She bustled around the bathroom some more, pulling things from places he couldn't see. He wondered how she knew where everything was. Had she been here before? He planned on asking her immediately.

He must have nodded off, because Paige was suddenly leaning over him, shaking his shoulder. With frustration, tempered heavily by exhaustion he found their roles from this morning reversed. She stripped him of his clothes and devastated herself of her own before pushing him under the spray of the shower head. There was no shower door; the whole bath room was open, much like a locker room.

She produced soap mildly scented with a cinnamon like fragrance. He watched her lather the soap onto a rag and then pause. He couldn't help but smile at the blush that started at her cheeks and quickly spread. She looked up at him, and her eyes narrowed at his expression.

She huffed and with false bravado began to scrub his body. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feel of her hands against his skin. He must have fallen asleep again because she was suddenly tugging at his neck and pulling him back under the spray to wash his hair of soap he couldn't begin to imagine how she managed to put there. The puzzle was solved when she backed him into a little alcove he hadn't noticed in the shower wall and sat him down.

She went about cleaning herself while he watched. Once they were both clean and wrapped in bathrobes she drew them out of the bathroom. Fed up with being led around by his Submissive he took the lead, tugging her towards the bed. He ripped back the blankets with a low growl before falling onto the soft mattress, bringing her with him. He tucked her against his body before drawing the blankets back up. He had every intention of reaffirming his place as Dominate, but he fell asleep before a single word left his mouth.

Paige smiled softly as her mate's body went lax against her back. Despite the fact that only yesterday she had been in the hospital with severe cold exposure, and spent the last hour in fear for her life, she was not tired.

It was technically still afternoon by her body's clock, even though she could see the unfamiliar starry sky of the Northern hemisphere through the large window. There was a pond of some size outside the window. Though she couldn't see it, moonlight reflected of its surface and the refracted light danced across the ceiling in the pattern unique to water.

Her leg throbbed painfully, reminding her that she hadn't taken her potions. She shifted, slowly sliding out from Viktor's embrace and scooted to the edge of the bed. Viktor grumbled in his sleep but didn't wake.

She limped over to their discarded clothes and pulled the potions from Viktor's pockets. She also found his wand and took that too. She found a shrunken file folder in another pocket with her name on it. She set it on the small table next to the tea pot and sat down, stretching out her bad leg and folding her good leg under it.

The potions were unbroken, the product of some spell she was sure. She took everything except the calming draught and sighed as the pain in her leg began to ease. She set down the empty vials and picked up the file with her name on it. It was no bigger than a deck of cards and refused to open. She fingered her mate's wand. It was warm in her hand and bizarrely it felt like she was holding Viktor's hand. She considered the spell's she knew from the first and second year books she had learned. She tapped the wand tip against the file without saying an incantation. She felt her magic slide from her hand, through the wand and the File grew to normal size and flipped open easily.

She set the wand down. She wasn't supposed to use magic, she hadn't actually expected that to work.

She felt no guilt flipping through the file. It had her name on it. The first thing she came across was a piece of paper written in Cyrillic. It had the crest she remembered seeing on the door to the Doctor's office that morning at the top. She felt a flash of annoyance and she glared at the paper. With a frustrated sigh she put that paper and the next four to the side. She gave another gusty sigh when the next sets of papers were written in Spanish.

She was about to shove those aside to when she realized what she was looking at. She felt her heart squeeze in her chest and her eyes burned with tears.

Sly.

She flipped through the papers which were written like a letter until she came to the last page. His name was signed at the bottom without any flourishes. She traced his name with her finger tip.

She closed her eyes against the tears that threaten to fall and placed both hands flat on the paper. It had been a while since she had deliberately used her gift, she got enough accidental glimpses from stepping out of her rooms that she had avoided using it deliberately.

The paper appeared in her mind as it was on the table, only it glowed in mind's eye with Sly's residual energy signature. It was the same green as his wings. She concentrated on the glow until she felt the familiar sensation of falling.

_She frowned at her settings. The stark walls were unwelcoming. The room was hardly big enough to fit the single bed in the middle of it. Moonlight drifted in from a single, barred window. The shadows of the bars striped up the bed and across the figure sitting up and scribbling with quill on parchment. _

_She drifted closer until she was standing next to the bed. She reached out and touched the bent head of raven locks. _

_Sly remained oblivious to her presence. He muttered quietly in Spanish as he wrote. He looked so healthy and healed. She didn't see a single bandage on him. _

_He stopped writing suddenly, lifting his quill from the paper before letting out a sigh and signing his name._

"_Suki" _

_A house elf appeared on the bed right across from her. She dropped her hands and stepped back._

_Sly pulled a manila folder from under his pillow and handed both to the elf with quick clipped Spanish. Without a word the elf took the folder and letter and disappeared. _

_Sly leaned back against the wall and looked through Paige and out the window. _

"_Oh Sly."_ _She sighed, his expression was heartbreaking. Desolation was etched deeply on the planes of his face. His eyes looked through her, defeat so clearly filled their depths. _

_The door opened but Sly made no move to look at his visitor, but she watched all emotion drain from his face. It was as if she no longer looked at the man, but a mere statue. _

_She placed her hand over his cheek, hovering scant inches above his image. _

"_Sly, what happened to you?" _

_It was the wrong thing to think. _

_Something yanked at her from behind, flinging her forwards in his timeline. She stumbled and fell to her knees. Her hands disappeared under red viscous fluid that pooled there. She shrieked, pulling back and stumbling to her feet. The blood remained on the ground, her hands spotless. _

_She covered her face as screams pierced the air. She didn't want to see this. She didn't want to see him die._

"_Princessa."_

Paige fell back into her body, her body slumped forward onto the table like a puppet with its strings cut.

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><p><strong>AN:** thank you for the reviews and the favorites/alerts. Last chapter I forgot to mention that I have a side story that kind of gives a little more character information on her brothers, so check it out.

See you next week

Ta!

~**Juniper87**


	14. Family

**Dislcaimer: Standard Disclaimer. Don't Own Harry Potter, Don't Own Draken's.  
><strong>

**Enjoy!  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Family <strong>

She wasn't sure how long she lay there, fighting back tears and concentrating on her breathing. She supposed, a part of her had been clinging to the hope that the British Dracken had been lying. She had hoped, however vainly, that Sylvester was still alive and if not well, recovering safely with his family around him.

She felt her magic pull again and she clamped down on those thoughts, she held her breath and forced her mind blank, and tugged on her magic mentally until it gave up its intentions. She slowly exhaled and relaxed. She hadn't bothered to sit up, finding the rough parchment under her cheek a good reminder of where she was and a focal point to keep her there.

Her right hand rested on the table in front of her face and her eyes were drawn to the bandages that wrapped her wrist. They were grungy from dirt and wet, though they had been fresh that morning. She wondered if Peter had any bandages on hand. But she doubted she could get any without demands of explanation and she did not want to revisit the events of the last two months any sooner than she had too.

With a sigh she stood and went back into the bathroom, rummaging around the cabinet and under the sink as quietly as possible. She heard bedding rustle and froze, but it looked as though Viktor had merely turned in his sleep.

She found a role of Ace bandages. She felt her eyebrows rise at the very Muggle first aid kit tucked under the sink. She had quickly come to the conclusion that Peter's 'Muggle' life had been fabricated to keep her in the dark for reasons unknown. But, glancing at other contents of the bathroom she realized that the presence of magic was very subtle in her surrounding, everything worked in a Muggle fashion. Though the tiles beneath her feet were impossibly warm and could only be the result of magic, she couldn't actually point to anything and it scream "Magical" at her.

Which, she realized then, Peter's Muggle persona was more than for her sake. As she wrapped the beige, self-stick, wrap over the scars on her wrist she felt a little of her anger at Peter dissipate.

She still needed to know why he had, if not lied then deliberately withheld information that, quit possibly would have saved her a lot of the pain she had gone through.

Paige's head snapped around at the sound of footsteps and voices from the hall. She rushed back to the table and flung all the papers back into the file and shoved it under a floor pillow just as the door slid open enough for Hapi's head to poke through. He took in her sleeping mate and her obvious state of consciousness and tilted his head out towards the hallway.

She glanced at her mate and bit her lip. He's probably be furious if he woke up to find her gone, but...she was safe with her brothers. Hapi slid the door closed behind her, then simply stood there looking down at her. He smelt like burnt wood and blood, and she could see dried blood under his fingernails.

"Is..everyone alright?"

"Well…Gene is dead, but everyone else is fine."

Paige felt her heart stutter to a halt.

Hapi yelped as Jonathan smacked him on the back of the head.

"Damnit Hapi, don't say idiot things like that." Jonathan took her arm and propelled her down the hall away from a still cursing Hapi, "What my foolish older brother neglected to add was that Gene is a ghost, and has been for years. The wizards never stood a chance against us. We're all fine, which is more than we can say about the other guys." Jonathan gave her a friendly reassuring smile as he led her through a square archway that opened into a comfortable sized sitting room.

The eclectic array of furniture surprised her but she realized quickly that all the western styled chairs were conjured by the person sitting in it. The fifteen corporeal bodies and one ghost looked at up at her entrance. They all looked freshly pressed as if they had been up to nothing more taxing than good conversation. Even Peter looked his usual impeccably dressed self with his hair slicked back and lip healed. She found herself bodily deposited onto a floor pillow with her brothers in front of her in something vaguely resembling a semi-circle. Jonathan took a seat in a squishy looking arm chair behind Ichiro who sat on the floor. She began to see a pattern to their sitting arrangement.

Lawrence was directly across from her, and then the rest of them had sat in roughly the order of birth. Hapi sat on his right, Moss on his left and they bounced back and forth from there. Harry, Herbert, and Henry sat on a sofa that looked like something out of Elizabethan England, looking identical and impossible to tell apart.

She couldn't help but be amused that at nearly fifty years old they still dressed the same, and some how she knew that they had been hellions in the youth and age had done little to mellow them. They all but hummed with energy and they gave off a very chaotic air.

She realized that every one of them watched her with unabashed interest. Tension began to mount the longer they sat in silence. She stared down at her hands that rested in her lap, found the hem of her sleeve and began to twist and pull at the cloth.

Then, the one she thought was Herber leaned forward, "Do you like Pie?"

The question threw her. She had been expecting an interrogation of some kind. Lawrence especially looked like he had troubling questions to ask her, things that would likely dredge up feelings she was not to keen on having.

She grappled for an answer, before finally settling on a silent nod.

Herbert clapped his hands together once fairly loudly, causing her to flinch slightly. A plate and tea cup appeared in front of her face.

"You will be my first to try it, oui?"

She took the plate and cup and felt the weight settle in her hand. She looked at the pie, unsure what was in it, but it smelled very good.

"I am famous Pastry chief in Paris. I alvays look for new, delightful pastries. Try it."

Harry…or Henry muttered something in French, that from the sudden expression of Herbert's face was none complimentary. Things rapidly deteriorated from there.

She munched happily on a pie with a creamy filling of indeterminate origin, while her brothers began bickering and insults flew back and forth in a handful of different languages. Through it all she learned that, Harry was a clothes designer, Henry owned a Casino in the English Channel; Lawrence, Hapi and Moss had all retired from their line of work, Warren sculpted rock and designed jewelry in Muggle Scotland; Ichiro, Kenji and Taizo owned a Battle Magic Dojo in wizarding-Tokyo. Jonathan was a barrister in England. Tau had taken over Hapi's curse-breaking, tomb raiding company and currently had a team in Tibet raiding some recently found ancient wizarding school. Zuberi was an author and wrote fiction as well as books on Ancient Egyptian History and Magic. She wasn't sure what Oliver did, he hadn't actually said a word the entire time they sat there and neither had Gene, the ghost. Peter also remained quiet, in fact he seemed to be making it a point to stay out of the conversation.

She learned that Lawrence was the first born, and she had two sisters that had died in birth three years after him. Hapi was the only serving brother of the next clutch. Her brother's William and Robert had died in 1976 in a Death Eater Raid. Warren and Moss were born in the same clutch but had different fathers, she had two sisters that were stillborn in that clutch as well. Ichiro was her father's first born and so her oldest full blooded sibling. Kenji, Taizo, Jonathan and Tau were born in the same clutch as well. Kenji and Taizo weren't identical but were her full brothers. It was the only clutch that each of her father's had produced offspring together. Before Zuberi there was another pair of stillborn sisters. Zuberi, Oliver and Gene were born in the same clutch. She didn't ask how Gene died, and no one brought it up. Next came the triplets, and after them another clutch of triplet girls that were miscarried mid-term. Then finally Peter, named Iwao.

"What about the other two."

Silence descended like a cold wet blanket. Eyes went first to Peter and then to Lawrence.

Lawrence frowned, the effect pulled at the scars on his face and would have been absolutely terrifying had she not felt so completely at ease with him.

"They died." He grunted.

Conversation picked up again as Ichiro again attacked Herbert and Harry for their 'womanly pursuits' of cooking and clothes. Then, somehow amongst all the arguing someone (she suspected Herbert) steered the conversation to her life and without realizing it, she found herself spilling her life story. She told them of the families that had fostered her, about the girls in the orphanage she considered her little sisters, about Charlie at the repair shop and the Umino's who had treated her like a favored niece. She spoke of Peter's sudden arrival and the she found she couldn't speak anymore.

As she reached the point where Ash had discovered her, Elder's Shkadov's voice slithered into her head.

_"...the human is very weak. She will cling to any illusion of safety."_  
>She stared around her, at faces that were beginning to look concerned and then began to blur together.<p>

Her chest hurt.

What had she been about to say? Was everyone shouting?

Her vision began to darken around the corners, was she about to faint?

"She's not breathing!" someone shouted, but it took a minute for the meaning to sink in.

Panic attack.

The realization only made her thoughts world spin faster around her head and the room tilted dangerously. Dimly she heard something like the sound of wood splintering and then Viktor's face swam in and out of focus above her.

When had she lain down?

Her chest really hurt!

"Breathe!"

There was power behind the snarled command and Paige struggled to obey.

"In!"

Paige opened her mouth but found the ability to pull in air beyond her. Viktor's mouth closed over hers and his hot breath scalded its way into her mouth and down her throat, to lungs that eagerly expanded.

"Out."

Paige exhaled.

She found his next demand to inhale easier to comply with. Viktor gathered her into his arms and she found that it was easier to follow his pattern of inhale, exhale then doing it on her own. She closed her eyes and concentrated on his voice and the feel and sound of his heart and breathing. His chest rumbled under hers. She kept her eyes closed and wrapped her tired mind inside the warmth and safety that was her mate.

oVVVo

Viktor spoke calmly, but looked at each of the men around him with the promise of pain. The sixteen men had varying expression of surprise, confusion and contrition mixed liberally with concern.

"I did not take you for idiots." His accent thick with each word, too angry to force correct pronunciation of the English words. He wanted to curse them with words more comfortable on his tongue. He wanted to impress upon them the force of his wrath, he wanted to shred them verbally as he longed to shred them physically for causing his mate distress. They looked uncomfortable and affronted. He had been raised to respect his elders and he did usually hold a man's experience in high regard and never failed to consider advice given. The only thing keeping him from ripping into these men the way he longed to was the armful of trembling, gasping Submissive.

"Just vhat in the _hell_ vere you thinking interrogating my mate vithout me here? Vithout my permission?"

The oldest of them, who looked as if he had fought a dragon and barely come out of it alive, leaned forward in the leather armchair he say in. He braced his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together.

"We wanted the story, without any influence or input from you. Her side of the horror story that, we have gathered, has been the last six weeks of her life. But perhaps you'd care to explain how your mate was captured by Hoarders and how she managed to survive where hundreds have died before."

Viktor's grip on his Submissive tightened. There was a threat behind his words. A promise to do whatever was needed to keep Paige safe, especially if it meant keeping him away from her.  
>He bit back a snarl, "We have been mated for less than 48 hours."<br>None of them looked particularly surprised by this and he eyed them with suspicion, "How much do you know?"

"You tell us what you know; then we can compare notes."

Viktor silently considered the men before him. They were all in exceptionally good shape for men who were approaching their dotage. Even the Squib was well preserved.  
>There was an alertness in their eyes and body and hum of power that you rarely found in wizards. Instinctually, he knew that they were aware of their positions around the room, and of each twitch of fingers that betrayed his tenuous control. There was a trust between them all that came from long familiarity and strong bonds.<br>As his Dracken was soothed and settled by the press of his mate's body and relaxed scent he was able to think clearer.  
>These men were unknown, but they were not the enemy or a threat. They had been raised by Dracken's and so knew the dangers and expectations. They would be an invaluable security for Paige and perhaps another aid for her to heal. He also imagined that they had garnered a lot of information in the men who had attacked them today.<p>

Viktor stamped down his need to be in control of the situation, the need to hold the Dominate position over these humans and nodded his assent to Lawrence's terms.  
>He told them what he knew.<p>

"Most of vhat I know is from another's point of view. I had friend, Sylvester Osorio, who disappeared on assignment sometime last fall in Russia. The men of his team were found, dead and harvested, but his body vas not. Then, beginning of March, I receive file and letter from him. The file contained his medical records, his memories but also the records of this girl.

"I know only vhat he told me, and vhat he knew. That vas that the Hoarder's locked her in cell next to him for eight days the spoke. He wrote of her lucid times with great love, but her Dracken vas much stronger person to handle to torture that put her through daily. They harvested their blood but nothing else, the drugged them vith potions to keep them sedated, but potions do not last long or are as potent against superior Dracken physiology. Then, she vas placed in his cell and her Dracken released her human mind and together they devised plan of escape.

"His letter asked me to vatch over her mate meeting. Vhile Sly vorked with D.R.A.C.O most of his life, neither of us trust my Uncle, Shkadov, very much. That my Uncle vould take time to personally see to the mate selection of a Submissive told me he had more plans than altruistic reasons. I owe Sly a debt, and I do not trust my uncle, so I came and I vatched.

"By keeping my ears opened I learned they she fought vith the ferocity of a Dominate inside the varehouse against the vizards there. She preformed vandless magic that took down the goblin made vards and sent out a call that reached every Dracken on the island, Dominate and Submissive. Though leader and most of the group was not apprehended and that is vhy I think my uncle is interested in Paige and her mate selection.

"She is Ravenclaw, powerful, and vith Ravenclaw's particular brand of clairvoyance that has not been seen since her mother's passing. She does not see the future though, my uncle seems to think that vill not affect her daughters' chances at having the family magic and seeing the future as clear and your mother did. This is also vhat the Hoarder's are after. Sly mentioned breeding program, but even he vas unsure of how the Hoarder's hoped to force Dracken's to mate and produce offspring, though they seemed confident in their ability to do so.

"There is British Dracken working with the Hoarder's we do not know who, or his level of command, but he is someone vith connections. _Someone_ messed with the Enclaves wards, and _someone_ attacked Paige within the sanctuary."

He paused, then briefly explained their bonding in the forest, and then fell silent.

One by one the brothers began to divulge all they had learned.

Peter began after an elbow to the ribs from Oliver.

"Father's Blood wards around Paige's home are still active, if you were wondering. They didn't extend as far as the Hot Springs, which is the only reason the Hoarder's were even able to see her. This particular group of Hoarders has been after our family for generations. More specifically they have hounded the Ravenclaw line since Rowena's daughter was found out. It is why Mother picked names for us from our Father's ancestors, and why she encouraged us our diverse careers that would separate us from each other. If asked you would find very few who knew that Lawrence is my brother, or that I have any family in the Yanagi Dojo in Tokyo.

"The year before Paige was born the Hoarder's found the ancestral grounds in Scotland, and they used that to locate the family in New Zealand. Mother spent the year constantly viewing Timelines to keep track of the family. The strain it put on her body while pregnant is the reason Paige's inherited gift does not work like Mother's. The Hoarder's waited to see if Paige would survive the year, after so many of her daughters had died they wanted viable stock before they took action.

"Mother, for reason she never admitted to, never told her mates of the danger. She sent me to Scotland to stay with Jonathan, with a box that she said would open "when the time was right". I can only assume it was the box Paige found on her birthday because in all the chaos that followed the box disappeared. Aaron and Gaven were supposed to be with a family friend when the houses burned to the ground.I don't know if it was the Hoarder's or an accident but Mother and her mates were trapped within the haze of her Heat and died. Aaron and Gaven were never recovered but they could not be located either, neither could the Cameron's who were supposed to be watching them. Paige, Aaron and Gaven were untrackable, none of their belongings survived the fire to created a stronger link, but I doubt we could have found them. We were shocked by the sudden death of our parents, and I think we accepted the Auror's conclusion that the fire had completely destroyed the children's bodies.

About a year ago a letter from our Mother appeared in my office. In it was the information I needed to track down Paige. I followed it. Mother warned me about time lines and choices; so I could not reveal my relationship to Paige, neither was I allowed to contact my brothers, until Paige asked. So I gave her the keys to the family island cottage and stepped back to wait for Mother's timelines and choices to come together. Mother said she had guided things the best she could to give Paige the best chance at a full life. I have no idea if this was what she had intended, but Mother was a genius at maneuvering Fate."

Viktor glared at the youngest brother, "You are saying your mother intended for the Hoarder's to capture Paige? That all she has suffered was orchestrated at your Mother's hand?"

Peter shifted uncomfortably, "I…don't know. Mother mentioned Greece in conjunction with Paige's mate. I…think something, somewhere went wrong. Somewhere in the last fifteen years a choice was made that changed what Mother saw. I think, perhaps Paige opened the box too early. I don't know how it got to her, the letter told me to give it to her, but I didn't have it to give."

Viktor frowned, unable to see how a box could change the course of a life.

"She was safe, until DRACO's mole tipped the Hoarder's off that a suspected Submissive was in New Zealand." Oliver growled, " I think that is we're Mother's plan went wrong. Peter left Paige unwatched, unprotected, and the Dracken have a traitor in their mists.

The triplets piped up and began talking in round about DRACO's leak. Whoever it was covered their trail because none of the men in the forest know who it was, including the Dracken leading them.

"Vhat did you do vith them?" Viktor asked.

The matching grins that spread across the triplets faces sent a shiver down his spine of an emotion far too close to fear for his comfort.

"The wizards will be lucky if they ever remember their own name. We scattered them across the globe at various muggle mind institutions. We'll keep an eye on them."

"The Dracken is currently loitering in Jonathan's dungeon."

Viktor blinked in surprise. Jonathan merely stared at the three Frenchmen blandly.

"I have control of the ancestral home." He supplied when the triplets began to squirm under his gaze, " It is warded and unplotable, though still accessible by more pedestrian means. It was home to Ravenclaw's parents first and so built with Dracken in mind. Of course the Dracken will be allowed to escape, but we have means of keeping track of him when he does."

Viktor raised an eyebrow, "That is your plan? Allow him to escape and follow him?"

Lawrence grunted, "Simple is sometimes the most effective."

"You allow Paige to remain in danger!" Viktor voice rose from its chilled calm to molten rage.

To his surprise not one of them flinched.

"She remains in danger regardless. Our methods of tracking the Dracken are the same as the ones they use to track her. Very old, very dark, very powerful blood magic."

Viktor resisted the urge to scoff. Dracken's were notoriously hard to kill, especially by magic. Their scales repelled any offensive spell with the exception of the Unforgiveable Avada Kedavra. It was the reason he and his father had switched places under polyjuice after his name had come out of the cup for the Tri-wizarding Tournament.

But blood magic was different. It was highly dangerous and illegal in most of the world for the simple fact that it only required the victim's blood, it needed neither proximity or aim. But it had been outlawed so long that the idea that anyone even knew the incantations necessary to pull off such a spell seemed ludicrous.

That Lawrence believed it so fully sent icy tendrils of fear constricting around Viktor's heart. That anyone was willing to risk their souls and sanity with Blood Magic suggested a level of power that Viktor did not want to think about it.

He was certainly more powerful than the average wizard, but he doubted his ability to even perform the spell, much less sustain it for as long as they have. Then Lawrence's words really sank in and he felt his stomach roil.

"_You_ cast the same spell?"

Lawrence's gaze flickered over to Oliver. Viktor turned his gaze to the English-man and for the first time studied him. The sixty six year old had a head full of reddish blonde hair streaked liberally with grey that was cut close to his head. There was something about him that reminded him of the dower potions master at Hogwarts. His skin was waxy from lack of sunlight and there was darkness in his eyes that created a palpable chill around him. It was a darkness he remembered seeing in the eyes of Death Eaters and hardened criminals.

"Paige will be safe." Oliver grunted, shifting his gaze from Viktor's first to glare at the wall instead.

Surprisingly, Viktor believed him and felt some of the weight he had carried since receiving Sly's file, lift from his shoulders.  
>They weren't Dracken, but they were family, and every instinct told him he could trust them. So he trusted his instincts and listened with open ears as talk turned to planning their next step.<p>

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><p><strong>AN: You guys are amazing, and I'm reeeealllly sorry for the two..three? week break. I had not meant to not update. This chapter has been -almost- done for ages, was just working on dialogue and kept putting it off. Next chapter should go up by Saturday, but I can't promise that as it's still only a title...**

**Thank you for all the reviews/alerts!  
><strong>


	15. I Love You

**A/N: Surprise! Update!**

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><p><strong>I Love You<strong>

Viktor carried Paige back to their room sometime after midnight. He was surprised he'd managed to stay awake as long as he had. Magical exhaustion pulled at him and he was sure he would sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He gathered his mate close, cocooning her in his body and tucking her head under his chin.

She gave a soft sigh, her hand had slipped under the opening of his robe and rested over his heart. Sleep, however, eluded him. His eyes remained open, gazing out the window and watched clouds drifted across the moon. It didn't take him long to realize that Paige wasn't asleep either and he wasn't going to be able to sleep until she did.

He ran one hand through her hair, playing with its strands weaving it through his fingers. He tried to think of something to say, something to help ease whatever worries were keeping her awake. Speech had never been his strong suite and he was too exhausted to attempt to guess at her thoughts.

With each stroke of his hand he released a measure of calming magic. The tension he felt in her back slowly began to ease and then suddenly she jerked away.

"Stop." Her voice cracked as if she was close to tears. Before he could stop her she pulled completely away from him and sat up, throwing her legs over the side of the bed. He grabbed her arm preventing her from completely leaving the bed.

"Vhat is it Kotëhok?" he kept his voice low and soothing as if talking to an actual kitten.

She didn't attempt to move off the bed, neither did she relax. He couldn't get an accurate reading on her emotions; they seemed to tumble over themselves. Fear, Joy, Sorrow, Relief, and more he couldn't name.

"Stop controlling my emotions." Her voice wavered, there was something desperate in her words, "Since I turned sixteen magic has been controlling who I am and what I feel. My Dracken, you, Shkadov, those…wizards, even my…" her voice cracked again with what he realized was a swallowed sob, "my mother has used magic to make me _feel_ what they wanted, _do_ what they wanted.

"I hate magic."

The absolute loathing behind those three words surprised Viktor.

"Kotëhok-"

"No." she interrupted him, "No." she repeated, "It's done nothing but hurt me. I wish-"

_I had never been found_, the words hung there, unspoken but there between them. Viktor felt his hand fall away from her. Her rejection coursed through him; sharp and cold and painful. This runaway train that had been his life since reading Sly's letter was on the verge of derailing. What would he do if her Dracken rejected him, as she so clearly wanted to do?

Something warm pressed against his lips and he blinked in surprise. Paige's eyes were mere inches from him, filled with a feral, hungry glint. Her lips pressed against him, hard and soft, searing, branding.

His exhausted brain shut down. He tangled one hand in her hair and the other tugged her closer. Quickly it turned into a battle of dominance and with a low growl he pressed her into the bed.

Somewhere, he realized that it wasn't Paige beneath him but her Dracken and reluctantly he dragged his lips from hers. He stared at his mate, her face was flushed, her lips swollen and her eyes invited him to do things he knew Paige wasn't ready for. He smiled.

Whatever human Paige thought, her Dracken wanted him, and as long as at least part of her wanted him then he could make all of her want him. He could make her accept all of who she was including magic.

He pressed a soft lingering kiss against his mate's forehead. Her eyes searched his for a moment before satisfaction lit them. She blinked rapidly. He watched Paige return, and then her eyes water with tears.

She surprised him once again and pulling his head down to hers and kissing him.

"I'm sorry." She murmured against his lips, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Shhh. Kotëhok. Everything vill be alright."

Her eyes swam with a myriad of emotions, "Viktor, I don't regret you. I don't. You're the only good thing to come of Magic." Her hands cupped his face, "I just don't know what I am anymore, I haven't been allowed to handle any of this on my own, everyone wants me to stay calm, biddable, and all those damned calming potions and spells don't help. I need to freak out, I need to shout, I need to cry. I need to _feel_. Please, try to understand."

Viktor found that he did. He took her hands in his and kissed each palm, "I understand."

Her fingers curled over her palms and she nodded giving him a small smile. Viktor rolled off her and onto his side. She shifted to follow him so they continued to face each other. She reached out, taking his hand and laced her fingers through his.

"This is all so scary." She said quietly, "My life has completely changed since I turned sixteen; nothing in Inglewood prepared me for any of this." She gave a short laugh, "I'm used to taking care of things, fixing things. It's what I've always done. I took care of the girls; I fixed peoples cars, and microwaves and refrigerators." She closed her eyes, as a wave of homesickness for her life in Inglewood swamped her, "But now. Now I can't even fix myself. I need you to do that." She opened her eyes their stormy depths bore into him with a fear that he felt all the way to his soul, "I've never needed anyone."

His Dracken growled at his mate's distress over something that shouldn't matter. Of course she needed him. He was her Dominate. Even Viktor wasn't completely sure why this fact pained her, but he had people he trusted around him his entire life. People who helped keep his creature status out of the media, who helped cover for him while he had to go mate meetings. Even team mates he trusted to watch his back during matches.

"I needed Shkadov and Madame Anise, but now I find that they were drugging me. I needed to know who I was when I turned sixteen, but my mother managed to keep that from me even in death." She gave a bitter laugh, "Viktor, I need you to fix me, but I need to you to trust me not to go crazy Submissive on you every time I cry or have a panic attack or rage. I have to find a middle ground with my Dracken instincts and my human ones.

I'm not sure if I'll ever be like a real Submissive, I think a part of me will always be more human than Dracken. Would you love me..even if my personalities never merge and I always switch between the two?"

Viktor didn't even hesitate before drawing her close and pressing a kiss against her lips, "I vill. Alvays, even if your Dracken goes "crazy Submissive" as you say, I vill be here and love you. Alvays."

She stared at him as if looking for the truth in his eyes. Finally she nodded, and all her emotions seemed to settle down. She kissed him quickly on the lips gave him a shy smile and flipped over to her other side.

He chuckled, drawing her back against him. She gave a happy sigh and it wasn't long before her breathing regulated and he was sure she was asleep. Sleep began to pull at him and with a final kiss on the top of her head he drifted off as well.

oVVVo

Viktor woke before Paige. The angle of the sun suggested it was late morning. The light filtered through the circular window and bathed the bed. Paige's skin glittered where the light reflected off her scales like so many diamonds swirling down her arms and across her face. Her red hair lay across her pillow and tumbled down the side of the bed in a copper waterfall. Her wings were absent but he could see the hint of fangs resting on her lips and her nails and torn through the pillow where she clutched it near her face.

He let his own Dracken features out, canted his wings to block the sun from her face so it wouldn't wake her. He brushed a stand of hair from her face, toying with the silky length as he watched her sleep with a possessive satisfaction burning in his heart.

For so long he had resisted finding a mate; the human part of him even resenting the desire, the basic need, of it even while accepting that it was who and what he was. However, waking up for the second time with his mate in his arm and knowing that she was forever in life made him realize how completely miserable he had been since turning sixteen. Catching a Snitch, the conquest of winning a Quidditch game couldn't hold a _Lumos_ to the feeling that warmed him now just looking at his mate, and somehow he knew this moment would fuel his _Patronus_ for the rest of his life.

oVVVo

Paige woke alone. For two heart stopping moments she feared last night had been a dream. She sat up in the unfamiliar room.

"Viktor!"

The cry was out of her mouth before she realized it. Panic at her mates absences choking her voice. A low roar was all the warning she had before he appeared by the bed and pulling her up into his arms. His eyes scanned the room then looked at her.

"Vhat! Vhat is vong?"

Paige's panic had dampened the moment Viktor had entered the room, to be replaced with red-faced embarrassment. She couldn't meet Viktor's eyes, instead she stared at the gold Snitch button on his robes and tried to relax the death grip she had on the fabric.  
>She felt his chuckle rumble in his chest as he realized what happened, the warmth of it sent a pleasant tingle through her body even as her head whipped up to glare at him.<br>Her snarky comment died before it ever formulated, her focus switched to the wings loosely extended around them.  
>Blue and silver reflected sunlight making it look like the pale leather of his wings was covered in sapphires and diamonds. She only realized she had reached out and stroked them when Viktor's grip on her waist tightened.<br>He went completely still, his breathing shallow and ragged and his eyes were glued to where her hand rested on his wings. His already dark eyes were nearly black and smoldered with a hungry heat. An answering heat sprang to life in her. She tilted her head in a deceptively submissive manor, and then slowly traced the curve of a scale.  
>Viktor gave a strangled growl and dipped his head and pressed his lips to hers with bruising intensity. She made a mental note that his wings were arousingly sensitive before melting into the kiss and thought became impossible.<p>

oVVVo

Viktor really hadn't planned on it happening then; with her life in danger and all sixteen of her brothers in the same house. And he knew some of her willingness stemmed from fear. Her panic at waking up alone told him she still hadn't accepted the reality of her new life.

But her touch had ripped through him, dissolving every good intention he had. The encouraging, passionate noises she made despite his roughness only fueled the flame. He wanted their first time to be slow, gentle and the special occasion that it was. But their bodies came together in a desperate passion stemmed from a mutual fear that tomorrow wouldn't come and that their time together would be over before it ever began.

Later, after the sun had begun its descent and his mate was curled into him, body still trembling from the aftershocks of their full bonding Viktor would call himself all sorts of names for taking advantage of his mates emotional distress. But now their passion fueled each other and he felt the answering passion his mate emitted in waves and nothing would have pulled him away from her.

oVVVo

Paige woke again, famished. Her body ached pleasantly and pure feminine satisfaction warmed her. The walls were drenched in the fiery colors of sunset. Her mate sat on the edge of the bed with his back to her. His shoulders were bowed with his head rested in his hands. She bit her lip, some of the pleasant emotions leaving in the face of Viktor's defeated posture.

She sat up, resting a scaled hand against her mates very human flesh, with a mental pull she too looked completely human again. Viktor tensed under her hand and she withdrew it, uncertainty dampening her rosy emotions a little more.

Viktor's eyes met her dark with emotion and his jaw as tense as the set of his shoulders.

Paige began to speak but her stomach gave an audible grumble. Viktor's expression went blank and he leapt to his feet. He scooped her up, blankets and all and climbed easily through the window.

She clutched the blankets around her body and stared around her brother's back yard. The pond took up most of the land, Koi fish as big as her head swam lazily under the shallow water. Bright red and pink flowers sprang up between the rocks that lined the pond. A stone crane hovered over the pond edge. Unlit lanterns floated lazily over the pond, one slowly drifted closer to them.

"Viktor?" she turned to her mate in confusion.

"I brought you food. Your brothers left some time ago for Scotland."

Her brain finally registered the smell her nose and stomach had picked up from Viktor, probably what had woken her to begin with. He was dressed in black trousers and buttoned up shirt, and the color had hidden the blood that still clung wetly to it.

It wasn't his blood, instinctively she knew it belonged to an animal.

She glanced around, trying to find the source, her nose telling her it was close. When she found it she had to stop herself from throwing herself on it. Blood still oozed from a scarily efficient slice across its neck. She wasn't sure what it was. Its structure was vaguely horse like but with a mane of thick blue fur that tapered into a pale blue body of short coarse fur.

"What-"

"Eat, vile it is still fresh."

She knew the thought of digging into a fresh animal corpse should have sent her running to the toilet, but Viktor's command seemed to be all she needed to drop to her knees, release her Dracken and rip into it.

Vaguely she heard Viktor settle behind her. She glanced back just to note that he stood in a guard like position, half turned away from her. She hummed to herself in appreciation of his profile. The setting sun made is skin glow and cast shadows across his face that made him look incredibly dangerous. She couldn't imagine anyone wanting to face down her mate and that made her feel safe.

Like an insidious record timed to that word, Shkadov's voice shattered her contentment.

"…_She will cling to any illusion of safety."_

She stared down at her hands, blood from the animal coated her hands. Her claws had sliced through skin and muscle like a hot knife through butter. The taste of blood and meat lingered in her mouth, sweet and tangy and possibly the best thing she'd had in months.

She should be revolted by this…shouldn't she? She tried to feel something, anything that would be a normal person's response. She didn't. She was happy, pleased with her mate and hungry.

"Kotëhok?"

Paige blinked out of her introspection and realized she had been skinning the animal and section on it. Her appetite fled; her arms chest and knees now bloodied.

She stood and ran to pond, dunking her hands in and scrubbing viciously. She could feel the memories pushing at her, the dark room, the chair, the slice of the Dracken claw blade.

The water turned pink around her hands, she splashed water onto her face and neck, scrubbing as if getting rid of the blood would banish the memories, but they kept coming. Emotions blurred with images smells and sound. She heard screaming, and realized it wasn't just a memory, the screams where coming from her. She sat hunched over the pond edge, her claws dug into the rock and she was screaming at her reflection in the water. Tears burned her eyes and her body shook with the force of her emotions.

Something boiled within her, rolling just below her skin radiating from the center of her chest. Rather than forcing down her emotions or pushing against the sensation of her magic, she fed it. Her skin began to glow, the light pulsing to the beat of her erratic heart. She began to feel full and her emotions began to settle. With an effort she pushed the magic that had gathered in her down her arms and out her hands. Unfocused magic filled the rocks beneath her and leaked into to water until with a sigh she cut off.

She took a deep breath, feeling empty and full at the same time. Feeling more settled than she had before she retracted her claws from the stone and hid her Dracken features again. The stone had melted with her hand print; the simple stones around her were now shot through with coiling iridescent veins that glowed faintly. The water had a radiation like glow as well and she wondered if her magic might hurt the fish.

Viktor!

She stood and turned.

Viktor stood right behind her, his wings half unfolded from where he had cocooned his body with them. He was looking at his wings with a strange expression on his face.

Had she hurt him?

She hurried towards him and he turned to look at her with an unreadable expression but she could see the faint trembling of his body and a slightly wild look in his eyes as they raked her body for obvious sign of damage.

"Are you okay? Did I hurt you?"

Viktor didn't respond, but instead reached out and yanked her off her feet. She squeaked in surprise but held still as he used his nose, tongue and hands to check every inch of her body. It was as he was doing this she realized she was still completely naked, having lost the blanket sometime while eating.

She moved to cover herself but froze at the overly aggressive growl from her mate. He had dropped to his knees in his attempt to find damage and she clutched his shoulders as his questing hands drifted over a spot that sent a knee weakening burst of lust through her body.

"Did that hurt?" Viktor asked, probing the spot more thoroughly. She shook her head unable to articulate exactly what his hand, now tongue was doing to her where it caressed the curve of her hip. She looked down at him and their eyes met. His eyes widened comically to the heat of her gaze and he snatched his hand back as if burned.

She barely managed to swallow the mew of disappointment. But his abrupt movement extended his wings and she let out a gasp as she saw what he had been looking at earlier. Like paint splatter, the color had been leached from the outer part of his wings, the effected scales fully or partially the pearl like color of her own scales.

She clapped at hand over her mouth to hold back her cry of dismay.

"Oh no, Viktor your wings!"

Viktor glanced back at his wings, that same unreadable expression flickering across his face. He tucked his wings behind his back.

"I vill live. You did not hurt me, and you are not hurt and that is the most important thing." He looked at her for a moment before taking her hands in his and leading her back into the house through the window.

Her clothes were cleaned and stacked on the table but she picked up her robes from where they had been discarded last night. She wrapped it around her and turned around to find her mate leaning against the windowsill watching her.

He still looked troubled and she tried to think of what she could say to let him know that she felt fine now. She felt better than fine. She felt charged, energetic and completely pain free.

She moved to stand in front of him, then pushed close so that he had to shift his legs to accommodate her between them. She put her hands on his shoulder and leaned up and pressed a kiss against his lips. His hands settled on her hips, but his lips remained unresponsive.

She pulled back, "Thank you." She said.

He made a noise in response but continued to watch her without saying a word.

"For feeding me," she continued, "for letting me 'freak out', for not running away, for last night."

Viktor flinched at the last one, then blinked at her with surprise, "Last night?"

Her cheeks heated up, but she refused to feel embarrassed, "Definitely for last night," she smiled at his rather dumbfounded expression and she couldn't help the small giggle, "Last night was more then I was ever able to imagine, and…I think Shkadov was right about the mate thing helping my personalities settle. I don't feel quite so conflicted with everything now."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled up at him, "I love you, Viktor."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** So I am sure the chapter is littered with mistakes, but I'm tell you I was just happy to get it done! I've had a big debate with myself about finishing the story before posting again, but I decided to go ahead and update. I apologize, life happened. I can't say when I'll update again, but I haven't given up on this! Thanks for your reviews and your patients :)


	16. Bells, Castles and Giant Squids

**Bells, Castles and Giant Squids  
><strong>

Paige shrugged into her freshly laundered clothes, the tan and cream ensemble all the better for some spells cast by Viktor. She stood in the middle of their borrowed room and dithered. Viktor had disappeared into Peter's office to write some letters and as they had spent every second of the last couple days in each other company she felt like she ought to give him some time alone.

Her Dracken didn't agree and left her pacing restlessly from window to door until she realized what she was doing and tried to distract herself. She had cleaned up the room, showered and now dressed. She eyed the window and wondered if a bit of a exploring would be distraction enough. She slipped out of the window before she had time to really second guess herself.

The rock and water of the pond still showed the effects of her burst of accidental magic. In the noon sun the water's surface had an iridescent shimmer that matched the new veins lacing the rock that surrounded it. Peter's water garden covered a good half acre with low stone or wooden bridges crisscrossing across the water. By accident she stumbled upon the outer wall and followed it to a separate building.

To her delight it was a large shed that contained several cars. Most of them were new models, the kind of car she expected a lawyer to drive. But tucked into a corner under a black tarp was a motorcycle. It took all of two minutes for her to figure out what needed to be fixed and a bit of riffling through drawers and cupboards she found the necessary tools and a cover-all that was several sizes too big. Happy with her discovery she began tinkering with the motorcycle, completely forgetting any intention of getting back to the house before Viktor noticed she was gone.

oOVOo

The only thing that kept Viktor from panicking at the empty room he found a few hours later was the tracking spell he had placed on her robes while mending them and the fact that he was sure he would have noticed if she had left the property. A quick Point Me spell led him to the shed. He eyed the Muggle machines with wariness.

"Paige?"

"Over here." Her words were mumbled but he skirted around the metal things until she came into view. Her outer robe lay abandoned across a table littered with boxes containing drawers, and oddly shaped metal things. Paige had such a thing in her mouth and another in her hand. She was in a brown suite like thing that was rolled up around her elbows and around her ankles. There were dark smudges on her face and hands, but there was also a smile on her lips and a twinkle in her eye as she fiddled with …whatever the thing was.

"Vhat…is that?"

Her eyes flickered to him and the corner of her mouth turned up a little more before she looked back at what she was doing. She took the metal fork-ish thing from her mouth and used it on the metal beast.

"It's a motorcycle, a Yamaha XT 600 to be exact and…" she paused stood up and reached around the thing and it gave a great guttural roar. Viktor reacted by tackling Paige and pulling her away from the thing.

His wings enclosed her and his arms pressed her to him as he glared at the rattling, humming beast.

Paige giggled, "It's supposed to do that."

Slowly Viktor's heart rate turned to normal and his death grip on Paige loosened. She pressed a kiss to his check before slipping away from him and walking back towards the noisy 'motorcycle'. Viktor reluctantly followed. Paige did something and it immediately went still and silent.

"Vhat is it for?" he asked as she started picking up the metal tools on the floor.

"Traveling, like a broom I guess, but it stays on the ground."

Now that it was not making noise Viktor stepped closer and examined it. It reminded him vaguely of a bicycle but with more metal things between the wheels and under the seat.

Paige walked around the other side of the motorcycle and braced her arms on the seat and leaned over. A grin played across her face.

"How fast can you go on a broom?"

Viktor shrugged, "It depends on the broom, I have Nimbus 2001. At top speed I can usually go about 152 kmh. The Firebolt is much faster."

Paige grinned, "Wicked." She straightened and patted the seat of the motorcycle, "This thing could probably reach that- newer ones most defiantly."

Viktor looked at the heavy looking machine and doubted it could move very fast at all without the help of magic.

Paige's stomach gave an audible growl reminding Viktor of why he had come searching for her. Her cheeks were stained pink when he looked up at her.

"Dinner?" she asked.

oOVOo

Like it had every day, dinner waited for them on the small table in their room. Despite the growling of her stomach it took very little for her to begin feeling nauseous and overfull. She moved the food around her plate and tore the dinner roll into pieces that never made it into her mouth. The click of a bottle on the table made her lift her eyes from her plate.

She eyed the perky pink liquid with disgust. It was a stomach calming potion and she knew if she took it she would be able to finish her dinner. She also knew arguing was futile, Viktor could _make_ her take it. He had not yet, afraid it would do more damage than good and Paige folded fairly quickly under his gaze anyways.

She did not meet his eyes as she took the medicine. Another grimace and an aggrieved sigh she put another forkful of meat into her mouth and chewed. Viktor resumed eating as well; matching his pace to hers though his portions were decidedly larger. She didn't clear her plate but she ate more than she had eaten the night before when she went back to moving her food around her plate.

Viktor stopped eating as well and he watched guilt flicker across her face. She stabbed a piece of broccoli on her plate, the metal of her fork scratched the plate noisily. She lifted the broccoli, her hands trembling and forced it into her mouth. Viktor took another bite of his dinner.

No sooner had she swallowed her broccoli then her face went white and her eyes flew open wide. She dropped her fork and raced to the bathroom. Viktor abandoned the table as well following her into the bathroom. The potion prevented her dinner from making a reappearance but she gagged and dry heaved into the toilet.

Viktor knelt beside her, rubbing her back in soothing circles. The spell passed and Paige rested her forehead on her arms crossed across the seat. She coughed sporadically and her body trembled under his hand.

"I hate that potion." She whispered mournfully.

Viktor didn't say anything but lifted her from the floor. She didn't complain, merely wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her forehead into the curve of his neck.

"We have a meeting with Kŭshta tomorrow." Viktor said, "And we are going to check the wards of your home in Morere."

Paige lifted her head and looked at him with delighted surprise, "Really?"

He nodded.

She shifted subtly and he set her on her feet again. She was still a little pale and shaky. She reached for a toothbrush and began her nighttime routine.

"Kŭshta will send us a Portkey to his office. He has an international Floo connection to New Zealand. We will use that and Peter gave me the Apparation coordinates to your home."

Paige frowned, briefly wondering why the Doctor had an international Floo connection to New Zealand, before realizing that it was probably connected to the Enclave. She frowned before spitting out her toothpaste, unsure how she felt about going back to the Enclave so soon. She finished getting ready for bed by slipping into a set of pajamas Viktor had transfigured from a couple pillow cases. Viktor had dressed down into only a pair of loose trousers like hers and the white kimono he wore like a robe. She marveled a moment at the domestic-ness of what they had just done. There dinner had been magically cleared away and their bed turned down. Paige padded over to the still open window. It was completely dark outside, dinner having taken its usual two hours to complete.

Paige paused in the act of closing the window, squinting at the sky at an inky blob flying swiftly towards her.

"Kŭshta's owl is here." She said.

"What?"

Paige jumped at Viktor's alarmed growl and turned to look at him, so she did not notice it was not an owl that stopped at the edge of Peter's wards. She did hear the tinkling sound of a bell and turn in time to catch the large gold jingle bell that came flying at her from the darkness.

She had just enough time to look at Viktor in confusion before she was jerked off her feet by a tugging sensation at her navel and her surroundings flew away.

oOVOo

Viktor's arms closed over empty air. He was out the window and in the air the next moment, wings beating heavily until he was at the edge of the wards. He scanned the area, beyond the wall. A couple half muttered spells told him whoever had been there was gone now. He twisted in his spot and with a crack appeared in Peter's office again. He threw open the curio chest and pulled down a Bludger sized globe and the gold pouch next to it. From within the pouch he pulled out a handful of jade figures and a hand sized mirror.

He held up the mirror, "Peter." He said clearly.

The mirror flashed briefly and then Peter's face appeared in the glass. The youngest of Paige's brother's face was dirty and flushed; there was blood at the corner of his mouth.

"Viktor! Thank Merlin, I've been trying to reach you for ages. Get Paige out of there. It was a trap, the whole thing was a trap."

"Where are you?" Viktor demanded.

"Russia. Oliver tracked our friend to St. Petersburg but we were ambushed. We haven't been able to get a hold of the family seat either and we've been holed up in an abandoned Muggle warehouse. Lawrence and Hapi are doing some snooping around, Oliver is still recovering from the tracking spell."

"I need the spell for Paige." Viktor said.

Peter blanched and swore colorfully, "What happened."

"The spell Peter, Now!"

"Put the Jade Panda on the globe and say _Shinryu_."

Viktor picked up the bear shaped figure and places it on the globe.

"Shinryu."

The Jade color of the panda bleed from the figurine as the globe beneath it began to spin rapidly. Viktor tilted the mirror so Peter could see it. The globe slowed to a stop, and the Panda was sitting on top of the U.K island.

"I'll give you the cords to the family seat, I don't know what you'll be Apparating into, we haven't had contact with Jonathan since we got to St. Petersburg, but that's the best place to start looking. As soon as Lawrence gets back we will Apparate back. Keep the Mirror on you."

Viktor nodded and memorized the cords Peter gave him before Peter closed the connection.

Viktor paused and gathered his magic around. It would be impossible to Apparate from Japan to Scotland but he had a permanent Portkey to Bulgaria in the form of his family ring. He muttered the activation spell, his feet barely touched the ground before he twisted in spot and disappeared again.

The sound of his arrival echoed in the cavernous stone hall he appeared in. His wand was out and a quick flick of his wand stuck the hood of his cloak in place, leaving his face in shadows and his identity secret. A few more spells revealed the castle was empty of all life. Viktor silenced his movement with another spell and crept up the circular stair to the Great Hall. Spell damage was evident, but there was a lack of death that worried Viktor more. At worst their enemies had far too many hostages, preferably his mate's brothers had taken the enemy to a more defensible location. The front doors had been blasted from their frames and Viktor slipped from the hall and into the open.

The Fechlin-Smith keep was built on its own cliff, the only way in or out of the keep was a drawbridge spanning the rift between cliff and mainland. The courtyard was large, housing a stable, lists and its own chapel. The black stone and angry gargoyles perched on the roofs and gave the keep a sinister look.

He stood in the shadow of the keep and scanned the courtyard. A couple horses stood close together at one end of the paddock, their heavy breathing and wild eyes told him that whatever had happened here was still recent enough to keep the animals spooked. From his robe he pulled out his broom, no point in revealing his creature status to anyone still spying on the keep.

He lifted into the air with ease, tense and waiting for an attack. His Point Me spell indicated Paige's brothers had headed away from the island and were someone in the Atlantic. Another spell told him Page was inland.

His pocket chose that moment to chime. He pulled out the compact mirror. Lawrence's scared face greeted him.

"Find Paige. We're fine, we're regrouping at Hapi's."

Viktor felt his eyebrow lift in surprise but Lawrence frowned deeper, "We've taken some injuries, when we re-group we'll find you, keep the mirror on you at all times."

The mirror flashed once and became a simple mirror again. Viktor tucked into his pocket and secured it closed with a spell. He turned his broom and sped towards Aberdeen.

oOVOo

It felt like she was pulled through the air for hours, it only took her a few seconds to realize the bell in her hand dragging her away from her mate but it was incredible difficult to release it. She managed it though and was rewarded with the sick feeling of falling before plunging into water.

She hung suspended in the water, the air knocked from her lungs and too confused to realize her predicament. Something brushed against her leg. She kicked away from it frantically and twisted around. Refracted sunlight bounced off the murky water around her, leaving her blind in a greenish watery haze.

Something dark shot past her in the water and she twisted to swim away from it only to be stopped by another object. She turned again and found herself face to eyeball with a giant squid. Her surprise was all it needed, a tentacle wrapped around her waist and she was being dragged through the water.

Then suddenly she was suspended above a lake and could breathe again. Like baseball pitcher the Squid drew back then tossed her towards the shore. She skid across the water a couple times before coming to a halt in the shallows.

She crawled to the edge of the lake before collapsing. The air was surprisingly warm, but she barely noticed as she struggled with an urge to either laugh or cry.

"Well now. You're not what I tossed at Richard."

Paige squeaked at the giant of a man looming over her. Black eyes peered down at her from above a large nose and massive amounts of bushy hair. Said eyes flickered over her before he turned abruptly, though not before his face went beat red.

Paige looked down and groaned in dismay. Her pajamas were soaked and completely transparent.

"A simply drying spell aught to do it." The man supplied helpfully.

"I'm not allowed to use magic at the moment." She admitted, curling her arms over her chest in a futile attempt at modesty, "And I don't know the drying spell yet."

The rustle of a coat and suddenly a thick shawl the size of a blanket fell over her. She quickly wraped it around her as she stood.

"Thanks." She murmured.

The man turned around and she had to crane her neck to look him in the face.

"You're not a student here. I don't recognize you."

"Student?" she asked bewildered, looking around at the lake and the forest, unsure why anyone would hold lessons next to a squid inhabited lake.

The giant started to say something then shook his head, "Never you mind, let's get you inside and warmed up."

Paige glanced back at the lake, "Do...are you a wizard?"

"Of 'course. You think they would let a Muggle take care of Richard?"

"Richard...The Squid?"

"Well, thas just what I call him. Been here longer 'en me, but Squid just seemed kinda mean, be like callin' you 'girl' instead uh…"

"Paige, my name is Paige." She said.

Hagrid gave her a friendly pat on the back that knocked her to the ground. With an embarrassed chuckle and apology he helped her to her feet. They skirted a large boulder and came to end of the tree line. Hagrid's school comment made more sense. The school grounds stretched out from the water like an emerald lake of its own. Stairs wound up the rocky terrain closer to the castle. A hut was nestled close to where they stood against the trees. Large vegetables were going in a midish sized garden, and a stone paddock housed some chicken like creatures.

Hagrid led her to the hut, a large hound rested at the foot of the trio of steps that led to the door. It could have been dead for all the acknowledgement the prone canine gave them.

"Thas Fang, right lazy dog he's been lately. Come on I'll make you a cup o tea and send a message to the headmaster."

Paige glanced up at the castle that now dominated the horizon before following Hagrid into his home. _Hogwarts_.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: ** Hey! look who still lives! So sorry for delay in updating. I had issues with Doc Manager, and then forgot that I had finished this chapter and was trying to upload it. So while I would love to get back to weekend updates, I just don't see that happening. Mostly because as of Chapter Fourteen this story took on a life of it's own and I have no idea what I'm doing anymore!

Hogwarts was supposed to happen waaay later, like..summer time...when avoiding crossing into tRotD's actual story line would be easier...and I haven't the foggiest whats going to happen next, I'm about as excited as you guys probably are, with the added terror of realizing that -I'm- the one supposed to write it...should be fun though!

Again, no beta, so spelling is awful, and I re-read my story and realized that ALL the Dominants were Dominates, i feel idiotic...I will go back and correct that glaringly stupid mistake.

So on a side note, that will effect how this story progresses, how many of you are keen on seeing her complete mate harem, and how many are just interested in my riveting plot? I, personally, cannot decide whether to include her next mate selection into the story line or not. I'll be honest and say that I hated killing Sly as he was kind of a Latino Benedict Cumberbatch mixed with a little David Tennant in my head, and to see that delicious man leave my head forever was heart wrenching and I'm loath to pair her up with anyone else. However, I can be encouraged to put her mate selection in the plot if you are really interested, if not the story goes on anyways.

Until next time, my faithful and remarkably patient readers,

Ta!

Juniper87


	17. Poltergeists and Longbottoms

**A/N : Lookie Lookie another update! :D**

* * *

><p>Poltergeists and Longbottoms<p>

For once the Bulgarian Quidditch Seeker wished for rain. Thunderous clouds would hide him from view with an added bonus of fitting his mood perfectly. As it was the sun continued to rise unobstructed by even a hint of cloud. Scotland flew by beneath him as an emerald blur dotted with trees, sheep and rock. When his broom refused to fly as fast as he demanded he had cast a Notice-Me-Not spell and released his Dracken wings. The pace he set for himself was hindered only by the need to stay high enough to not be caught by another witch or wizard on a broom. Still he flew hard and fast in the direction his spell pointed, once more glad of the tracking spell he had woven into his mates clothes when he transfigure them.

It wasn't long before a familiar village began to form on the horizon and with it a castle he hadn't expected to see for a while. He turned to make a wide berth of both the village and castle, only to have his wand spin and point towards the school. He switched back into his role as human and used his broom to land on the road leading from Hogsmead to Hogwarts.

His wand pointed towards the castle, and glowed faintly telling him his mate was near. He recast the spell three times and had the same results.

He eyed the towering castle as he began to walk towards it. The front gates came into view as the path took him through a small patch of trees and with them a house elf.

"Can I helps you?" it squeaked.

Viktor stared at the small creature thinking of how easy it would be to overtake it and just rush the school. He ignored the thoughts, so close to the quantity of people the school housed, maintaining the secret was imperative.

"I wish to speak to the Headmaster." Realizing he was still hooded he drew back his cowl, "I am Viktor Krum."

"Wait here please." The elf said before disappearing. Less than a minute later the gates opened on the own. Viktor drew up his cowl again and made his way towards the castle, mentally going over, just how he was going to explain it all to the Headmaster.

oOVOo

It turned out that Hagrid had a chest of discarded school robes in his hut and with a little digging Paige was able to find one in her size, as well as a jumper that was large and trousers that were too long but snug. Going commando was uncomfortable but better than wet, muddy pajamas.

When Hagrid set a cup of tea in front of her he finally asked her how she had ended up in the school lake. Paige hesitated only a second before explaining about the Portkey.

"That's a very dangerous thing to be messin' around with, Portkey's, lucky for you it dropped you over the lake and not onto a rock, or inside a mountain. Portkey's are made to take you to one place and very fast, when you let go the travelin' magic gets a mussed up and you get hurt."

Paige nodded and sipped her tea. A dull throb had started up in her side and it was a little difficult to breath. She recognized the feeling from her reaction to the cold and rain at the Enclave, but it wasn't too bad so she ignored it as something to tell Viktor when he showed up. She was a little bemused by her certainty that he would show up, but she was his mate and he would rescue her, just like the sky was blue and the sun rose in the east.

However, she was not sure that staying at Hogwarts was possible and as it was a school surely she would be able to find someone who could get a message to Viktor. They finished the tea as a message from the Headmaster reached Hagrid summoning them to his office.

Barefoot, Paige followed Hagrid up the slope to the castle. The large oak doors opened easily for them. Paige gazed around in quiet awe as she followed up the marble stair case opposite the doors. Two her right he noisy chatter of a large group of people floated through a set of double doors propped open slightly. As she passed she caught a glimpse of long tables set with heaping foods and a lot of students, a raised dais with another unoccupied table.

A bushy haired girl slipped out of the doors, a sandwich in one hand and a book in the other, as Paige and Hagrid took a corner and left the entrance hall behind. What followed was a confusing crisscross of staircases and corridors that led them higher and higher. They did not walk in silence though, Hagrid happily expounded on the wonders of Hogwarts, Dragons, Dumbledore, Cerberuses, and a Hippogriff named Buckbeak.

As they entered another corridor about five floors up and portrait caught Paige's eye. The women looked very much like the women in the smallest and oldest portrait she had found in her basement. There were subtle differences but the resemblance was there. Paige glanced at the gold plate at the bottom. She stopped and stepped closer, the writing had started to fade and she wondered why as all the other portraits had looked almost new.

Helena Ravenclaw

Paige grinned and unbent turning to tell Hagrid that she was related to this person only to find herself alone in the corridor.

"Oh good going." She muttered to herself before racing off in the direction she was sure Hagrid had gone.

"Oooooh, inkle student in trouble, and going to the headmasters she is!"

Paige yelped and spun around at the nasally voice to find a man floating above her with a wicked grin and unkind glint in its eyes. He was dressed in the most garish colored jacket and striped trousers with a bright orange polka-dotted tie and a hat with so many bells on it she was not sure how he had managed to sneak up on her.

"I'm not…I mean yes I was headed to the Headmasters office, I'm lost is all."

The person suddenly flew in close so that his face nearly pressed against hers. His black hair brushed against her forehead before springing back into place.

"It's this way." He said in a study of all seriousness, and then he grabbed her nose and pulled hard before zooming away screaming "Got your conk!"

Paige clapped a hand over her smarting nose and blinked back the watering of her eyes. She stared after, him watching him bounce down the corridor like a deranged pin-ball.

"What a strange man." She muttered, rubbing her still sore nose before following him.

oOVOo

The urge to shred the half-giant grounds keeper occupied an unproductive amount of space in Viktor's mind. It did not help that the castle still had lingering smells of Darken from Potter's recently concluded mate selection.

While his claim on Paige had been thoroughly consummated she hadn't yet gone into a heat that would cement his position as her mate. His skin itched with the urge to get her away from any potential threat to his claim. The fact that Hogwarts was probably one of the safest places for her hardly signified. He wasn't leaving his mate in a castle with other Dracken's, mated or otherwise, wondering about.

He headed towards the door with a growl of frustration.

"Mr. Krum." Dumbledore's voice stopped him, "I do not think getting lost yourself in the castle halls will help find your betrothed any faster."

Viktor forced a stiff nodded, and clenched his fists at his side. The oaf Hagrid babbled more apologies but Viktor focused on keeping calm. He could hunt down his mate easily by scent alone but that would raise far too many questions and with Potter in residence the wrong hints and Dumbledore would know his secret. He didn't know the dodgy old Headmaster enough to trust him and Viktor wasn't in the habit of exposing his secretes to strangers.

So he waited because Paige could not get into that much trouble in a school filled with children.

oOVOo

Paige was stuck in a set of stairs. Not on a set of stairs IN them. Like quick sand all her wiggling accomplished was to sink her in further. She sat down on the step above it and glowered.

"I hate magic." She told the painting of grandfather clock and an empty chair. The clock merely chimed, its pendulum swinging un interrupted, "And I'm not too thrilled with the castle either." She told it, bracing her elbow on her knee and putting her chin in her hand.

"Moving stair cases, vanishing steps, I could have broken my neck if that nice women in the painting hadn't warned me! Drafty, daft castle and now I'm stuck, IN the step."

"If it helps any, I still forget about that one?"

Paige twisted around to see a boy about her age. Dark blonde hair curled around his ears and his blue eyes smiled kindly with his lips twisted in an ironic smile. He continued down the steps, hoped over the trick on and turned to face her.

He looked at her with a slight confused frown, "Sorry, I'm trying to place you but I can't, but then remembering things isn't my best, unless it's plants." He lifted his book to show an Advanced Herbology guide, before setting it on the step beside her and offering his hands.

"Let me help you up."

On the first tug she didn't so much as budge from the trick step, so the boy braced himself and tugged harder. Naturally the step decided to release her at that point throwing him off balance and the two of them tumbled down the remaining steps to land in a heap at the bottom.

Paige laughed, rolling off her unfortunate rescuer and to her feet. He's face cracked a smile and he stood as well.

"Alright?" she asked

He smiled and nodded, "You?"

"Yes." She helped him gather the books that had scattered from his bag on their tumble down the steps, making sure to avoid the trick one this time.

"I'm Paige." She offered, handing him a Transfiguration book and roll of parchments.

"Neville."

"Thank you Neville, for your help."

"No problem, it happens to me all the time."

They shared a commiserating smile and he turned to leave.

"Actually," she said, placing a staying hand on his arm, his cheeks flushed slightly and she pulled it back, "I was trying to get to the Headmasters Office. I'm not actually a student, a um…spell landed me in the lake a few hours ago, I'm afraid I lost my original escort."

Neville smiled, "I wondered. You look my age but I've never seen you in any of the classes I share with Hufflepuff."

Paige fingered the badger crest on her borrowed robes, "Yeah, no Hagrid lent me these."

"I'll show you to the Headmaster's then?"

Paige grinned, "That would be brilliant."

Paige fell in step beside him ask questions about Hogwarts tumbled from her lips. The chance of talking to an actual wizarding student distracted her from the fact that she had barely foiled a kidnapping attempt of herself and was stranded in a castle with the hovering threat of a faceless enemy and without the protection of Viktor's presence.

Neville blushed and stammered his answer and kept mentioning a Hermione who 'could explain it better'. The paintings on the wall began to look familiar as Neville finished explaining the house system of Hogwarts.

"Paige!"

Paige turned at the sound of her mate's voice. Relief at the sight of Viktor at the end of the corridor left her weak as a tension she had not noticed drained from her body.

The boy at her side made incoherent noises of shock as Viktor reached them and pulled her into his arms. Her toes barely touched the ground and his arms squeezed her tender ribs painfully, but she didn't care. She threw her arms around his neck and held on to him as if the last four hours apart had been years.

His scent and power wrapped around her and she had to bite back a sob as she finally let herself be afraid again. His chest rumbled against her in a growl so light she didn't even hear it. She relaxed her grip and pulled back in surprise, thinking he was angry at her. His dark eyes however were pinning Neville to the spot.

A glance at Neville showed the poor boy white as a sheet and looked about ready to wet his pants. She pinched Viktor, his eyes snapped to her with a frown.

"Neville was helping me." She glowered right back at him. She knew that she should be easy on her mate, his temper simmered coldly and something feral stared at her from behind his eyes. An anger she couldn't explain sat like a warm coal in the pit of her stomach.

Viktor muttered something in Bulgarian and set her on her feet though he kept one arm around her waist and pulled her against his side.

"Thank you Neville, for finding and assisting my ma-Paige. I vould take it as personal favor if you not mention I vas here. I vill reward you your troubles, of course."

Neville stuttered incoherently before falling silent and nodding.

"Ve were traveling to see family and I'm afraid the Port Key failed half-way. We were separated." Viktor lied smoothly, answering the unasked question of his presence.

Neville's eyes widened in surprise, "That's really dangerous; you could have been seriously hurt."

"Yes." Viktor agreed shortly, "We should not loiter in the castle Kotëhok; your family is expecting us."

Viktor subtly guided her towards the steps. Paige smiled at Neville, and felt an answering growl from Viktor which she ignored.

"Thank you again Neville for the help with the steps and answering all my questions."

Neville nodded again, this time flushing before taking a nervous step back.

"I'll um… I'll just go then?"

"Tha vould be good idea." Viktor said with a light snarl.

Paige elbowed him as Neville vanished around a corner.

"You were rude." She snapped at him.

Viktor growled back closing the small gap she had created between them.

"He vas-"

"He was what?" she snapped, wrenching out of his arms, the coal of anger suddenly igniting in a fire, "Going to kidnap me? You're a bit late, someone already did that. But why not loose me to a sixteen year old boy as well?"

Viktor flinched so hard it was like she had actually slapped him.

Paige clapped a hand over her mouth, hardly believing she had said that.

"Oh, Viktor, I didn't- I mean…"

Viktor gave her a silencing look and grabbed her hand before turning away in silence, pulling her down the corridor. Miserable and upset at her words didn't resist.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I wanted to give a shout out to all those who have reviewed. I love the encouragement and I'm tickled pink that you love this story so much :)

A couple people have asked some questions that I haven't gotten around to answering, so I'll go a head and do that now, if I miss a question or not answer it to your satisfaction let me know and I'll PM you a longer explanation.

Maddie: Yes I know Star called the New Zealand Submissive Annabelle, in fact she told me when i asked permission to to write this fan fiction. However Paige already had a story and life of her own before I asked permission to post it ( if Star had said no I would have continued to write the story but never posted it and shared it with my friends only). Annabelle has a completely different background then Paige and doesn't exist in my Story. Again this is a fanfiction of a fanfiction so things aren't exactly the same :)

Amy: Yes Viktor should be speaking Bulgarian, however Russian is easier for me. In my story Viktor also speaks French and English as well as Russian and Bulgarian. A little research into Bulgaria and i found that Russian was a very common second language for the natives, so I added that into Viktor's character. I hope my mixing of languages doesn't absolutely kill it for you :)

Dapper: About that Asian setting- honestly this story is pretty much all over the place. As her fathers were from three distinct cultures I want Paige to be able to see it through the progression of the story, was Japan an absolutely necessary setting? No, it would have worked anywhere else, but I love Asia and it's cultures, and since her dad was from Japan I chose to do those chapters in Japan.

If I missed anything let me know :) Again thanks for the reviews and positive support!

Ta!

Juniper87


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